BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 


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UNIVERSITY 
CALIFORNIA 


Problems  of  the  Age* 

Dealing  with  Religious,  Social  and  Economic  Questions  and  their 

Solution.    A  Study  for  the  Quorums  and  Classes 

of  the  Melchizedek  Priesthood 

By  Joseph  M.  Tanner 

Preface 

I  am  asked  to  write  on  some  of  the  vital  problems  of  the  age.  At  the 
outset  I  anticipate  a  criticism  that  many  of  the  chapters  of  this  book  will  be 
considered  pessimistic.  Problems  are  problems  because  they  have  two  sides, 
and  because  they  presuppose,  in  our  social  and  economic  systems,  a  need 
of  reformation;  they  are  problems  also  because  they  carry  certain  dangers 
with  them.  If  this  were  an  age  of  optimism  we  should  have  few  or  no  prob- 
lems for  discussion. 

About  the  only  real  optimism  which  we  can  safely  entertain  is  the  op- 
timism of  hope  that  things  somehow  and  sometime  will  come  out  all  right. 
It  is  our  chief  duty  at  present,  however,  to  pursue  remedies  to  thwart  evils 
which  every  thoughtful  person  must  realize  are  threatening  the  social  and  ec- 
onomic systems  of  the  world. 

War  has  its  evils  but  war  is  also  a  revelation  of  a  multitude  of  existing 
evils  that  have  brought  it  about.  We  are,  therefore,  on  the  threshold  of  a 
period  of  reconstruction.  As  a  people  we  believe  sincerely  that  the  wisdom 
of  this  world  is  insufficient  to  meet  the  great  demands  of  the  future.  Here- 
after the  world  must  take  God  into  their  confidence  and  consider  seriously 
the  revelations  which  he  has  given  for  our  guidance.  Only  a  very  few  of 
these  reevlations  are  referred  to  in  this  book  because  of  the  limitations  put 
upon  it. 

The  contents  of  these  chapters  are  not  exhaustive.  They  are  rather  in- 
tended as  a  basis  for  the  discussion  of  present  conditions  of  life  which  con- 
stitute a  problem  for  all  thinking  men.  The  classes  for  whom  these  chap- 
ters are  intended  will  have,  therefore,  from  their  own  experience  and  read- 
ing, abundant  illustrations  to  supplement  that  which  the  author  has  written. 
The  problems  contained  in  these  discussions  are  the  living  issues;  they  are 
very  serious  issues  that  confront  us. 

Furthermore,  we  live  in  an  age  when  the  most  serious  troubles  confront 
us,  and  as  a  people  we  may  well  begin  the  work  of  reconstruction  that  has 
been  prepared  for  us  by  revelation.  It  is  time  to  set  our  houses  in  order 
and  prepare  for  the  colossal  work  which  peace  will  bring  to  us  as  a  people 
and  to  the  world  at  large. 

If  I  have  drawn  a  dark  picture  of  many  aspects  of  the  world  today,  I  rest 
in  the  consolation  that  nothing  has  been  said  in  this  book  which,  in  my 
thoughts,  is  not  justified  by  the  revelations  which  God  has  given  through 
the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith  to  the  world.  The  revelations  in  the  book  of  Doc- 
trine and  Covenants  truly  give  us  the  most  serious  warnings  of  God's  judg- 
ments which  are  to  come,  and  "come  quickly,"  he  has  told  us.  If  there  are 
those  who  think  I  have  been  excessively  pessimistic,  let  them  reed  the 
words  of  God  contained  in  the  revelations  printed  in  the  Doctrine  and  Cov- 
enants. They  are  my  best  defense. — 7.  M.  Tanner. 


I. — An  Interpretation  of  the  War 

Definition— The  great  conflict  now  raging  in  Europe  represents  two 
great  classes  of  wars.  There  are  national  wars,  or  what  we  might  term  the 
ordinary  war,  and  there  are  world-dominion  wars.  The  latter  take  place  onlj 

*Note. — From  the  Improvement  Era,  beginning  January,  1918. 


2  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

at  great  intervals;  they  mark  the  end  of  the  old  and  the  beginning  of  a  new 
regime ;  they  represent  individual  and  national  ambition  for  world-wide 
dominion.  Such  wars  are  represented  in  the  overthrow  of  the  civilization 
in  the  ancient  nations  inhabiting  the  valley  of  the  Mesopotamia  and  the 
banks  of  the  Nile.  Alexander  wept,  it  is  said,  because  there  were  no  other 
worlds  to  conquer.  "In  that  day  to  be  a  Roman  was  greater  than  a  king." 
Rome,  at  the  zenith  of  her  career  as  conqueror  of  nations,  began  her  down- 
fall. Napoleon  dreamed  dreams,  and  today  Germany  is  struggling  for  world 
supremacy.  The  lesson  that  God  is  the  ruler  of  this  world  has  never  been 
learned.  From  ancient  times,  ambitions  to  overtop  the  heavens  have  been 
thwarted  amidst  confusion  and  decay. 

The  Decadence  of  the  Old  and  the  Birth  of  the  New.— The  fact  that 
nations  come  and  go  is  not  so  important  as  ihe  changes  in  civilization.  The 
process  of  disintegration  goes  on  rapidly  while  from  beneath  a  new  order 
of  things  is  springing  up.  The  old  regime  was  as  blind  to  its  fading  glory 
as  it  was  to  the  eternal  truth  of  God's  omnipotence.  We  come  thus  to  speak 
of  Egyptian,  Greek,  and  Roman  civilizations,  each  supplanting  the  other  in 
the  order  named.  These  changes  have  been  a  part  of  the  progress  of  the 
world  from  the  earliest  times.  At  these  periodical  changes  in  civilization, 
some  distant  and  "contemptible"  power  has  come  into  the  new  life  of  the 
world  as  a  dominating  factor.  Such  world-dominion  wars  have  not  only 
become  characterized  by  the  unexpected  which  happened  in  them,  but  by 
the  unexpected  results  that  grew  out  of  them.  The  great  war  now  on  has 
been  noted  for  the  sudden  appearance  of  the  unexpected,  and  according  to 
past  epochs  of  history,  we  may  reasonably  expect  that  its  effects  will  be  the 
unexpected  changes  and  conditions  of  the  new  life  which  will  follow.  The 
ground  beneath  our  feet  is  giving  way,  and  we  must  support  ourselves  by  a 
new  and  different  hold  upon  the  shifting  conditions  of  another  civilization. 

The  Fading  Glories. — In  all  these  past  break-ups  in  civilization,  men 
have  deceived  themselves  by  their  prattle  about  imperishable  glories.  They 
professed  to  believe  that  their  age  had  fastened  itself  upon  the  life  of  the 
world  forever.  The  fading  processes  became  obscure  to  them,  not  because 
they  were  not  visible,  but  because  men  were  blind.  Today  we  see  but  do  not 
comprehend — a  form  of  blindness.  The  world  is  therefore  full  of  surprises 
for  which  we  are  not  prepared.  Under  such  conditions  men  cannot  com- 
prehend a  change  because  the  end  and  the  beginning  are  not  abrupt,  but 
the  one  grows  gradually  out  of  the  other.  The  key  to  the  mystery  of  it  all 
is  locked  up  in  the  word  "unexpected."  If  we  would  form  some  idea  of 
the  unexpected  things  that  await  us,  we  must  count  the  unexpected  things 
that  have  happened.  The  sure  sign  of  the  new  age  is  "surprise." 

After  the  Breakup. — What  will  happen  after  the  disintegrating  processes 
have  done  their  work?  That  is  God's  mystery,  a  part  of  his  revelations.  It 
will  be  the  new  glory  of  another  age.  As  time  goes  on,  it  will  become  a 
field  for  speculation.  Economists  will  stand  amid  the  ruins  of  their  the- 
ories, and  explain  by  "if's"  why  they  were  not  everlastingly  right.  Politi- 
cians will  grope  in  the  dark.  The  business  world  will  begin  the  work  of 
readjustment.  Community  life  will  take  on  a  new  aspect.  Customs,  man- 
ners, and  methods  will  be  changed  to  suit  the  needs  of  the  new  life. 

Changes  may  not  be  rapid.  In  the  past  they  have  appeared  gradually  as 
generation  after  generation  passed  on.  This,  however,  is  an  electric  age, 
and  who  can  gay  that  the  new  life  may  not  come  with  the  speed  which  is 
drawing  the  world  to  its  new  destiny.  Life  at  such  a  crisis  is  bewildering, 
but  it  is  interesting,  it  is  even  comforting  because  it  reveals  some  divine  pur- 
pose which  calls  for  a  new  hope  and  a  profounder  faith. 

Is  Disintegration  Anarchy? — Leading  minds  of  England  are  in  a  world 
of  doubt.  Lloyd  George  has  recently  appointed  a  commission  to  examine 
industrial  unrest.  The  president  of  the  Corpus  Christi  College  of  Oxford 
does  not  believe  that  a  revolution  can  be  averted  e  ^n  to  the  end  of  the 
present  war.  In  this  country  Andrew  D.  White  sees  the  coming  of  anarchy. 
"Whether  the  change  will  be  a  simple  disintegration  or  anarchy  depends 
upon  the  question  of  violence.  Violence  comes  from  hatred  and  hatred  is 
inflamed  by  hunger.  Will  famine  follow  war?  It  has  often  been  its  com- 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  3 

panion.  Brooks  Adams,  in  his  Theory  of  Social  Revolution,  says:  "Now, 
although  the  optimist  contends  that  since  men  cannot  foresee  the  future, 
worry  about  the  future  is  futile,  and  that  everything,  in  the  best  possible  of 
worlds,  is  inevitably  for  the  best.  I  think  it  clear  that  within  recent  years 
an  uneasy  suspicion  has  come  into  being  that  the  principle  of  authority  has 
been  dangerously  impaired,  and  that  the  social  system,  if  it  is  to  cohere, 
must  be  reorganized.  If  capital  insists  upon  continuing  to  exercise  sov- 
ereign powers,  without  accepting  responsibility  for  a  trust,  the  revolt  against 
the  existing  order  must  probably  continue,  and  the  revolt  can  only  be  dealt 
with  by  physical  force." 

Government  is  always  representative,  whether  it  be  democratic  or  mo- 
narchial;  but  it  represents  the  dominating  force  of  the  age  and  community. 
It  will  hardly  be  gainsaid  that  the  greater  force  in  our  country  today  is 
capital,  and  that  our  government  is  primarily  capitalistic,  just  as  in  Ger- 
many the  government  is  militaristic,  because  the  greatest  force  in  that  coun- 
try is  military  power. 

We  have  ceased  to  look  to  the  Government  at  Washington  as  our  sole 
protector.  In  the  city  of  New  York  the  lives  of  millions  are  dependent  not 
upon  Congress  or  upon  the  president  of  the  United  States,  but  upon  the 
great  transportation  companies  that  hourly  transport  the  daily  bread  of  the 
people.  If  it  be  said  that  state  and  federal  governments  may  control  these 
transportation  companies,  it  will  be  admitted  that  capital  is  after  all  the 
primary  power,  and  the  government's  only  secondary.  Some  captains  of 
industry  have  set  up  a  divine  right  to  rule  as  the  stewards  of  the  people's 
needs.  What  Mr.  Adams  here  writes  was  given  out  before  the  war.  The 
war  emphasizes  the  weaknesses,  vices,  and  dangers  of  our  national  life.  As 
the  evils  of  governments  become  more  pronounced,  they  invite  all  opposing 
forces  in  opposition  to  them,  and  hence  we  see  the  menace  of  capital  and 
labor  to  the  present  standards  of  life. 

New  Problems. — As  a  result  of  the  present  world  catastrophe  a  new 
order  of  life  will  come  into  being,  old  institutions  will  give  way  to  new 
organizations  brought  forward  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  new  ag3.  Our 
social,  industrial,  and  religious  life  must  undergo  pronounced  changes  in 
the  reconstruction  of  a  new  age. 

It  is  not  easy  to  establish  a  new  order  of  things  without  some  prepar 
tion,  some  experience.  Has  God  permitted  this  debacle  to  come  into  th. 
world  without  some  revelation  of  the  needs  of  the  new  life  to  which  people 
will  be  subjected?  Is  there  no  one  to  point  the  way,  no  institution  given 
to  some  delegated  authority  as  a  guide  to  the  life  of  the  new  world?  The 
crumbling  processes  are  already  felt,  but  an  easy-going  world  has  not  yet 
become  serious  enough  to  think  of  substitutions.  It  will  be  the  aim  of  the 
writer  to  point  out  in  the  chapters  to  follow  some  of  the  important  and 
already  established  methods  of  dealing  with  the  new  age,  revealed  methods 
that  have  already  found  their  way  into  the  daily  lives  of  comparatively 
small  communities,  but  yet  suited  for  the  largest  of  human  aggregations. 
The  world  is  being  thrown  into  a  vast  cauldron,  the  melting  pot  of  human 
institutions.  What  the  moulding  processes  will  be  it  is  not  easy  to  deter- 
mine, but  out  of  the  incoherent  mass  of  activities  will  come  a  new  earth, 
if  not  a  new  heaven.  One  may  readily  believe  that  this  is  God's  day,  that  he 
is  speaking  through  those  calamities  which  the  world  is  bringing  upon  itself. 
The  history  of  the  past  proves  that  more  than  once  it  has  been  easier  for  the 
voice  of  God  to  penetrate  the  world  through  the  roar  of  cannon  and  the 
shrieks  of  famine  than  through  the  vices,  oppressions,  and  luxuries  of  life. 
Out  of  great  calamities  have  been  born  many  divine  institutions  that  brought 
alleviation  from  the  sorrows  of  life.  Too  bad,  one  may  say,  that  we  must 
suffer  so  much  that  we  may  learn  so  little,  learn  what  we  might  know  and 
practice  if  only  our  lives  were  turned  to  the  will  and  purposes  of  God;  but 
we  have  our  free  agencies,  the  freest  of  all  human  institutions.  It  is  not 
agencies  that  make  us  free,  but  the  truth  which  is  learned  only  in  obedience 
to  divine  purposes.  We  have  not  the  strength  to  say  "not  my  will,  but 
thine  be  done."  What  we  vainly  imagine  is  the  strength  of  our  will  is  the 
weakness  of  our  selfishness  and  vain  ambitions. 


4  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

Revealed  Causes. — The  peace  of  the  world  is  God-ordained  and  God-sus- 
tained. If  men  will  not  acknowledge  God  in  all  things,  and  prefer  the  exer- 
cise of  their  free  agencies,  desires,  and  lusts,  they  may  have  their  own  way 
that  they  may  try  themselves  and  test  divine  truth.  Such  a  test  lies  before 
us.  In  a  revelation  of  God  to  Joseph  Smith,  the  Lord  says,  Doc.  and  Cov. 
1:31-35. 

"And  he  that  repents  not,  from  him  shall  be  taken  even  the  light  which 
he  has  received,  for  my  Spirit  shall  not  always  strive  with  man,  saith  the 
Lord  of  Hosts.  And  again,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  O  inhabitants  of  the 
earth,  I  the  Lord  am  willing  to  make  these  things  known  unto  all  flesh. 
For  I  am  no  respector  of  persons,  and  will  that  all  men  should  know  that 
the  day  speedily  cometh;  the  hour  is  not  yet,  but  is  nigh  at  hand,  when 
peace  shall  be  taken  from  the  earth,  and  the  devil  shall  have  power  over 
his  own  dominion." 

Again,  Doc.  and  Cov.  101:8: 

"In  the  day  of  their  peace  they  esteemed  lightly  my  counsel;  but  in  the 
day  of  their  trouble,  of  necessity  they  feel  after  me." 

See  also  Doc.  and  Cov.  43:33  and  all  of  section  87. 


// — The  Ashes  of  the  World's  Conflagration 

The  Elements  of  Destruction. — When  the  ashes  of  the  great  conflagra- 
tion are  removed,  they  will  reveal  the  elements  that  burned  so  fircely  and 
destructively  during  the  conflict.  They  will  contain  the  same  elements  that 
have  been  the  moving  factors  in  the  world's  great  upheavals  of  the  past — 
hatred,  ambition,  pride,  vice,  luxury,  idleness,  and  infidelity.  These  sins  have 
worked  themselves  into  the  lives  of  nations,  by  the  contagious  influence  of 
the  individuals  composing  the  social  structure  of  civilization.  There  de- 
velops a  national  spirit,  a  national  instinct  that  we  are  compelled  to  yield 
to  for  the  so-called  national  good.  When  national  disintegration  sets  in, 
society  is  compelled  anew  to  build  up  a  new  life  out  of  the  new  spirit  which 
has  always  followed  the  overthrow  of  a  passing  civilization.  Greece  and 
Rome  could  not  conceive  that  their  civilizations  were  unstable  and  incom- 
plete, that  they  must  pass  away  in  order  that  a  higher  and  better  life  might 
take  their  place.  We  may  see  the  place  where  others  stand,  but  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  look  at  ourselves  while  moving  forward  in  the  course  of  human 
events. 

Hatred. — A  passing  examination  of  the  destructive  forces  of  the  present 
age  will  better  help  us  to  appreciate  how  the  old  must  be  substituted  by  the 
new,  how  the  mistakes  of  the  past  must  be  avoided,  if  we  are  to  build  with 
any  degree  of  permanence  for  the  future. 

The  most  deadly  force  in  the  powers  of  destruction  is  hatred,  the  cause 
of  nearly  all  calamities  to  national  and  individual  life.  Wherever  this  de- 
structive force  manifests  itself  there  will  be  found  grave  dangers  to  our  peace 
and  progress.  It  provokes  wars  and  wrecks  all  the  social  institutions  in- 
tended for  man's  preservation  and  happiness.  When  there  is  an  alliance 
of  hatreds,  armed  conflict  is  virtually  inevitable.  Present  world  combina- 
tions furnish  a  striking  illustration.  For  decades  England,  France,  Russia 
and  Japan  were,  through  jealousy  and  hatred,  on  the  brink  of  war  or  actu- 
ally engaged  in  war.  There  gradually  arose  a  still  greater  hatred,  filled  by 
evil  ambitions.  Germany  drove  these  nations  by  hatred  and  autocratic 
contempt  for  others  into  one  another's  arms.  They  not  only  became  allied 
powers,  but  they  brought  with  them  an  alliance  of  hatred  with  which  Ger- 
many must  now  reckon.  These  alliances  are  not  merely  political  or  mili- 
tary maneuvers,  they  are  deep-seated,  ingrained  hatreds  as  deadly  as  they 
are  universal.  What  created  these  cruel  hatreds?  Thy  are  the  outgrowth 
of  social  vices  and  individual  sins.  Nothing  makes  man  so  great  a  hater 
as  sinful  conduct. 

Ambition. — A  tolerably  good  definition  of  modern  ambitions  is  to  get 
something  that  does  not  rightfully  belong  to  one.  The  word  itself  has  fal- 
fen  greatly  into  disuse  in  recent  years.  It  is  sometimes  referred  to  as  the 
sin  by  which  the  angels  fell.  But  the  old  spirit  of  ambition  is  still  present, 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  5 

clothed  in  modern  raiment.  Nowadays  we  speak  more  of  ideals,  purposes, 
aims,  etc.,  in  life.  We  are  less  satisfied  with  a  humble  station  in  which  we 
may  be  useful.  Utility  is  an  old  style  brand  that  makes  our  wares  hard  to 
sell.  People  are  not  so  much  concerned  about  what  useful  thing  they  are 
doing  as  they  are  about  the  place  they  occupy — a  standing.  They  foolishly 
imagine  that  a  standing  lifts  them  out  of  obscurity.  To  get  a  standing  they 
must  jostle  and  crowd  one  another.  Then  ambition  begins  its  ignoble 
ascent.  There  is  plenty  of  vacant  space  in  this  world,  but  nations  and  in* 
dividuals  would  sooner  step  on  some  one's  toes  than  move  aside.  Such  a 
treading  process  sooner  or  later  ends  in  conflict,  with  its  growing  hatreds. 

Pride. — Pride,  the  insiduous  poison  of  the  imagination,  has  blinded  the 
world  to  the  calamities  awaiting  it.  The  nations  are  boasting  of  their 
glories,  all  the  while  ignoring  the  fundamental  virtues  which  make  emlur- 
ance  and  growth  possible.  Some  Germans  talk  of  the  superman  as  superior 
to  God.  Why  not?  God  to  them  is  the  combined  effect  of  the  forces  of 
nature.  Man  is  bringing  these  forces,  and  therefore  God,  more  and  more 
under  his  command.  But  the  Germans  act  out  the  arrogant  insolence  of 
their  pride  more  than  they  speak  it.  Let  the  traveler  stop  to  think.  Did  he 
ever  witness  in  any  other  country  of  Europe  such  a  display  of  vain  pride 
as  the  Prussian  officers  manifest  on  the  streets  of  Berlin?  Yet  the  whole 
world  is  filled  with  pride.  It  is  not  a  national  characteristic.  However, 
in  Germany,  vain  boastings  helped  to  bring  on  a  war. 

Vice. — The  self-satisfaction  of  pride  leads  people  to  exclaim,  "Why  not 
let  good  enough  alone?"  The  old  contention  to  support  royalty  that  "the 
king  can  do  no  wrong"  has  its  counterpart  in  the  masses  who  vainly  imagine 
they  "can  do  no  wrong."  If  the  false  assumption  cost  monarchy  its  throne, 
it  will  be  none  the  less  dangerous  to  the  whole  of  mankind.  Our  boastful 
"crowning  age  of  glory"  is  not  working  out  to  our  satisfaction.  We  are 
compelled  to  stop  by  the  great  highways  of  life  to  witness  the  possible  base- 
ness of  human  nature.  No,  not  human  nature,  depraved  nature.  Men  are 
no  fairer  to  their  fellow-men  than  they  are  to  their  God.  If  God  is  excluded 
from  the  counsels  of  the  nations,  his  mercy  and  love  will  not  be  felt  in  the 
conduct  of  men.  Vice  begins  in  the  heart,  or  with  the  motives,  if  you  pre- 
fer, and  answers  the  call  of  self-indulgence.  The  prosperity  of  the  times, 
a  luxurious  age,  is  more  than  man  can  endure.  It  not  only  satisfies  old 
appetites,  but  it  creates  new  ones.  Our  impatience  with  every  form  of  re- 
straint gives  evidence  of  the  decadence  of  the  tims. 

Luxury. — We  speak  of  our  luxuries  as  if  they  were  the  special  favors 
of  God.  We  even  measure  our  success  by  them.  Luxuries  are  not  only 
evidences  of  our  national  decline,  they  are  potent  causes  of  the  domestic 
struggles  awaiting  us.  Awaiting  us?  War  is  only  one  phase  of  the  great 
break-up.  The  glare  of  the  heavens  reveals  the  sorrows  of  revolutions  and 
anarchy  to  come.  There  is  going  on  in  the  world  today  the  growth  of  a 
class  hatred  that  stifles  every  hopeful  breath.  The  cleavage  between  the 
rich  and  the  poor  is  not  only  wider,  but  is  deeper.  To  this  pronounced 
danger  to  the  security  of  our  social  institutions  the  newspapers  in  their 
social  columns  are  lending  the  most  efficient  aid.  They  picture  the  display 
of  wealth  and  its  wicked  extravagance.  They  write  up  "my  lady's  $25,000 
cat  house."  Banquets  in  honor  of  favorite  dogs  are  pictured  by  artists  in 
glowing  colors.  Wealth  not  only  seeks  but  demands  display.  To  outdo, 
to  outshine,  is  the  motto  of  the  age.  Fortunately,  all  of  the  poor  do  not 
read  these  human  follies  depicted  in  our  newspapers.  The  submerged  nine- 
tenths  are  i.ot  told  of  them,  and  poverty,  disappointment  and  reverses  make 
the  contrast  all  the  more  difficult  to  bear.  Such  a  condition  of  life  simply 
amasses  a  hatred  which  awaits  only  a  spark  of  hunger  to  touch  off.  Neither 
this  country  nor  Europe  could  endure  a  famine;  law  and  social  order  would 
be  cast  to  the  winds.  » 

Idleness. — Idleness  is  the  mother  of  discontent,  whether  it  be  the  idle- 
ness of  the  poor  or  the  idleness  of  the  rich.  Idleness  has  become  fashion- 
able in  all  kinds  of  amusements.  It  is  a  pleasure-seeking  age,  but  it  will  be 
a  calamity-finding  age.  And  who  is  to  blame  for  these  dangers  which  threaten 
our  existence?  These  evil  forces  are  the  companions  of  our  higher  civiliza- 


6  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

tion.  They  are  sweeping  on  with  an  irresistible  power  of  destruction.  Is  it 
fate?  No.  We  have  simply  allowed  the  momentum  to  get  beyond  our  con- 
trol. Like  ancient  Israel,  we  can  at  most  simply  "wait  upon  the  Lord"  who 
"hath  spoken  in  the  righteousness  of  his  anger."  Why  speak  of  the  inevit- 
able? Why  dwell  upon  the  sorrows  that  await  mankind?  In  them  we  have 
a  duty  to  perform.  A  period  of  reconstruction  will  follow.  Men  in  sorrow 
and  contrition  will  listen.  God  will  deliver  them  a  message,  as  he  has 
delivered  messages  in  the  past. 

Infidelity. — Can  even  a  democracy,  if  Godless,  exist?  Infidelity  is  more 
than  a  simple  disbelief  in  God  and  in  religious  institutions.  If  history  is 
pronounced  upon  any  one  question,  it  is  the  companionship  of  infidelity 
and  vice.  It  was  so  in  ancient  Greece  and  Rome  when  pagan  gods  were 
overthrown.  In  the  French  revolution  the  unity  of  the  two  forces  was  very 
marked.  Deny  it  as  man  may,  it  is  characteristic  of  men  to  throw  off  re- 
sponsibility with  the  profession  of  infidelity.  Can  justice  be  reached  through 
purely  intellectual  processes.  Without  religion  conscience  is  merely  an  in- 
tellectual quality.  When  President  Wilson  declared  that  "the  world  must 
be  made  safe  for  democracy,"  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts  added  that 
"democracy  must  be  made  safe  for  the  world."  The  safety  of  dem- 
ocracy has  been  taken  too  much  for  granted.  There  have  been  unsafe  dem- 
ocracies, democracies  which  have  fallen  into  decay.  They  are  not  invulner- 
able, not  incorruptible.  Some  years  ago  when  Herbert  Spencer  visited  the 
United  States,  he  was  asked  if  he  did  not  think  education  would  correct  cer- 
tain flagrant  evils  in  our  great  commonwealth.  He  immediately  answered, 
"No.  It  is  a  question  of  morals  and  not  education."  Morals  are  more  pro- 
nounced in  religion  than  in  any  other  social  functoin  of  life.  Religion  and 
morals  are  today  interdependent  in  all  civilized  nations.  The  growing  in- 
difference tj  religious  life  throughout  the  civilized  world  portend  no  good 
to  our  present  social  and  political  institutions,  whose  endurance  has  already 
been  thrown  into  the  balance  of  our  changing  civilization.  Is  not  all  this 
merely  pessimism?  I  wish  it  were;  and  yet,  if  the  decadent  old  is  to  be 
supplanted  by  a  better  and  holier  new,  why  should  we  not  be  optimistic 
about  divine  purposes? 

We  err  if  we  imagine  that  war  is  making  the  world  better  and  is  there- 
fore the  end  of  the  old  and  the  beginning  of  the  new.  It  simply  empha- 
sizes the  evils  which  brought  it  on.  Internal  revolutions,  which  have  al- 
ready begun  to  becloud  the  horizon  of  our  present  civilized  condition,  warn 
us  that  there  is  going  to  be  a  general  overthrow,  and  we  need  not  be  sur- 
prised to  discover  about  us  the  debris  of  the  past. 

A  Call  to  Repentance. — For  more  than  eighty  years  the  elders  of  the 
Church  have  been  calling  the  world  to  repentance,  and  obedience  to  the  gos- 
pel of  Jesus  Christ,  and  declaring  the  coming  of  such  calamities  as  are  now 
visiting  the  earth.  To  escape  such  a  visitation  the  Saints  are  required  to 
gather  to  the  Zion  of  God — the  pure  in  heart.  A  prophecy  of  Joseph  Smith, 
in  1831,  reads: 

"For  after  today  cometh  the  burning;  this  is  spoken  after  the  manner  of 
:he  Lord;  for  verily  I  say,  that  all  the  proud  and  they  that  do  wickedly 
shall  be  as  stubble;  and  I  will  burn  them  up,  for  I  am  the  Lord  of  hosts; 
and  I  will  not  spare  any  that  remain  in  Babylon." 


Ill— The  Worlds  Leveling  Processes 

Individualities. — The  fact  that  men  enjoy  separate  and  indpendent 
agencies,  that  to  every  man  is  given  an  individuality,  presupposes,  of  course, 
a  striking  difference  in  men's  capabilities.  Again,  men  are  born  into  differ- 
ent environments  which  in  themselves  offer  a  multitude  of  opportunities 
by  which  men  make  progress  in  the  financial  and  intellectual  world.  These 
environments  we  sometimes  call  the  accidents  of  birth;  but  we  may  never 
know  to  what  extent  the  distribution  of  the  spirits  of  God  in  this  world  is 
the  result  of  divine  agency. 

Men  also  move  from  place  to  place.  They  are  thrown  into  different 
environments  by  reason  of  their  activities,  and  these  again  tell  either  ad- 
vantageously or  disadvantageously  their  future  welfare.  But  even  where 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  7 

men  do  not  move  about  from  one  locality  to  another  so  as  to  change  their 
environments,  it  often  happens  that  an  inrush  of  population  makes  a  differ- 
ence in  their  opportunities.  It  is  easy,  therefore,  to  understand  that  we  are 
not  exclusively  the  architects  of  our  own  fortune,  that  we  are  creatures  of 
circumstances  of  environment  of  birth  as  well  as  creatures  of  different  capa- 
bilities. 

Luck. — Man  is  ever  prone  to  figure  out  causes  for  certain  effects  which 
come  under  his  observation.  Whenever  it  lends  color  to  his  superiority, 
he  is  quick  to  discard  every  reason  for  his  advanced  place  in  the  world 
except  that  of  his  sheer  ability.  Such  reasoning,  of  course,  is  in  a  large 
measure  the  result  of  individual  pride.  But  is  there,  we  ask,  such  a  thing 
as  luck?  Luck  has  come  to  be  a  rather  unsatisfactory  word;  but  if  it  is 
said  that  luck  consists  of  those  agencies  over  which  we  oureslves  have  no 
control,  it  must  be  said  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  luck, — decidedly  so. 
But  it  is  impossible  to  say  just  what  chance  lias  to  do  with  the  individual 
fortunes  or  misfortunes  of  men.  It  is  true  that  some  have  the  spirit  of  fore- 
sight; they  can  see  what  is  likely  to  happen;  they  figure  on  probabilities, 
and  of  course  take  their  chances,  although  they  may  have  been  so  very  care- 
ful in  their  estimates  that  they  really  have  few  chances  to  take.  For  example: 
A  man  has  a  small  tract  of  land  in  a  small  town,  or  near  a  small  town.  He 
has  no  reason  in  the  world  to  believe  that  in  such  a  place  land  values  are 
likely  to  be  very  great.  His  land  can  be  made  useful  to  him  in  a  small 
way,  and  he  decides  to  keep  it.  While  he  is  performing  the  individual 
duties  of  his  life,  unconscious  of  what  is  going  on  in  some  great  city,  a 
board  of  directors  meets  in  a  distant  city,  and  votes  on  a  railroad  policy 
that  is  sure  to  make  the  town  in  which  the  man  lives  a  very  populous  one. 
The  railroad  policy  is  carried  out,  thousands  of  people  rush  into  the  place, 
land  values  rise  rapidly,  and  the  result  is  a  personal  fortune  for  the  man 
who  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  railroad  policy  which  made  him 
rich,  and  who  even  knew  nothing  about  it.  Was  it  the  man's  foresight,  or 
was  it  a  circumstance  over  which  he  had  no  control?  Call  it  a  good 
chance,  or  call  it  luck,  whichever  you  care  to  do,  the  fact  remains  that  be- 
tween that  man  and  his  neighbor,  who  formerly  were  comparatively  on 
equal  terms  in  their  material  standing,  there  is  constantly  arising  a  great 
financial  inequality. 

Rising  Values. — As  a  rule  land  values,  if  the  land  has  a  certain  degree 
of  production  in  it,  are  what  we  might  call  stable  values  in  ordinary  times, 
but  in  extraordinary  times,  rising  values.  There  are  those  who  will  remem- 
ber that  in  early  days  the  people  among  the  Latter-day  Saints  were  warned 
against  parting  with  their  land.  Their  attention  was  called  to  these  rising 
values  which  men  of  wisdom  and  more  perfect  insight  foresaw,  and  the  peo- 
ple were  given  an  opportunity  to  take  it,  which  with  rare  exceptions  they 
threw  away. 

Thrift. — As  men  differ  in  other  qualities  of  life,  so  they  differ  in  thrift. 
Some  are  economical,  and  have  the  power  and  industry  to  earn  much  more 
than  others,  and  the  difference  in  thrift,  of  course,  always  creates  a  difference 
in  wealth.  Some  of  these  differences  which  men  enjoy  are  the  results  of  their 
superior  wisdom,  and  they  therefore  reap  a  rich  financial  reward  for  those 
principles  of  progress  which  we  call  thrift.  Indeed,  we  speak  of  them  at 
virtues.  But  all  the  superior  advantages  which  certain  men  enjoy  in  a  ma- 
terial way  over  their  fellow  men  are  not  advantages  which  have  accrued 
to  them  as  a  result  of  their  wisdom  or  of  their  virtues.  Many  of  them 
have  come  accidentally,  so  far  as  human  provision  can  give  us  the  power 
to  discern.  Whatever  the  causes  of  these  differences  may  be,  in  time  they 
often  become  very  painful.  They  are  a  source,  very  often,  of  great  injustice, 
of  sorrow,  of  human  suffering.  They  entail  misery,  at  times,  upon  untold 
generations,  and  the  differences  would  continue  to  increase  the  miseries  of 
humanity,  if  there  were  not  some  leveling  process  by  which  they  could  be 
destroyed. 

Laws  of  Moses.— When  God  undertook,  through  Moses,  to  establish  a 
national  life,  he  gave  laws  for  correcting  the  inequalities  that  produce 
wrongs  to  social  life.  He  established  the  Sabbatical  year  and  the  year  of 


8  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

Jubilee.  Every  seventh  year  men  were  compelled  to  forego  certain  advan- 
tages: they  were  compelled  to  release  slaves  whom  they  had  bought;  they 
had  to  return  land  which  they  had  obtained.  They  had  to  forgive  men  their 
debts,  and  thus,  by  the  frequent  application  of  this  law,  the  wrongs  that 
grew  out  of  the  inequalities  could  not  become  so  intense;  frequent  correc- 
tions made  the  sufferings  much  less;  and  above  all,  it  had  a  tendency  to 
preserve,  in  a  large  degree,  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

The  Law  Disregarded. — The  law  that  God  gave  to  ancient  Israel  was  not 
always  respected.  In  time  it  was  forgotten.  Even  the  book  containing  it 
was  lost,  and  the  people  went  on  under  the  wrongs  of  inequalities  until  the 
severer  leveling  processes  were  brought  upon  them.  Surrounding  nations 
broke  in  upon  them,  robbed  them  and  plundered  them,  and  when  such  cor- 
rections did  not  suffice,  the  Israelites  were  carried  away  into  bondage,  and 
the  entire  people  reduced  to  a  condition  of  abject  servitude.  The  differences 
and  the  wrongs  that  grew  out  of  them  made  a  new  beginning  in  life  neces- 
sary. But  the  leveling  processes  that  come  as  a  result  of  punishment  are  so 
much  more  terrible;  they  are  so  severe,  that  sometimes  whole  nations  are 
practically  wiped  out  of  existence.  To  correct  the  inequalities  of  condi- 
tions in  life,  war  sometimes  has  its  terrible  work  to  do.  Revolutions  break 
out,  and  anarchy  prevails.  History  teaches  us  that  as  a  rule  immorality 
increases  with  the  increase  of  inequality — with  the  divergence  between  the 
rich  and  the  poor. 

Inequalities  Created  by  War. — Witness  the  prodigious  revenue  required 
for  war  and  the  taxes  needed  to  supply  them.  Many  believe  that  the  rich 
will  be  practically  taxed  out  of  existence.  Will  they?  Or  will  they  in  time 
be  able  to  shift,  by  all  sorts  of  contrivances,  the  burden  of  taxation  upon  the 
general  public.  Income  taxes  upon  great  corporations  and  monopolies  are 
too  often  made  a  part  of  running  expenses,  and  the  public  pays  the  bill. 
Men  easily  conceal  themselves  behind  corporations  and  practice  extortions 
they  could  not  carry  on  as  individuals.  Men  at  the  battle  fronts  may  feel 
the  equalizing  procsses  that  come  through  comradeship,  but  in  civil  life 
huge  fortunes  are  created  because  of  war  conditions.  Those  who  fight  will 
feel  the  pinch  of  finance  after  the  war.  The  pinch  will  be  severe,  and  those 
who  suffer  will  sense  keenly  the  financial  differences  which  others  have 
reaped  at  their  expense.  Those  who  have  met  the  dangers  and  borne  the  bur- 
den of  war  in  its  most  dreadful  aspects  will  clamor  for  some  leveling  pro- 
cess. Selfishness  will  obliterate  the  highest  patriotic  motives,  and  men  must 
suffer  from  unjust  discriminations.  How  much  will  they  suffer?  No  human 
means  has  ever  been  devised  for  financial  equality.  Money  will  still  be  an 
unjust  power,  so  great  it  may  be  as  to  provoke  revolutions  and  create 
anarchy. 

Need  of  Religion. — Religion  must  come  to  the  relief  of  the  unfortunate 
if  serious  trouble  is  escaped.  To  add  to  the  difficulty  and  danger  there 
will  be  an  army  of  dependents,  many  of  whom  will  avoid  the  divinely-ap- 
pointed duty  of  toil.  It  will  be  the  old  condition  of  unworthy  poor  and 
oppressive  rich.  A  revelation  in  1831  portrays  the  unhappy  lives  of  both 
classes,  Doc.  and  Cov.  56:16,17. 


IV.— The  Spirit  of  Destruction 

Toil. — The  gospel  teaches  that  wealth  should  be  held  in  stewardship 
for  the  benefit  of  God's  children.  It  is  perhaps  one  of  the  most  difficult 
duties  man  has  to  perform  when  he  undertakes  to  overcome  his  selfishness, 
when  in  the  possession  of  the  material  gains  of  life.  There  is  a  real  and 
quite  universal  disposition  to  make  ourselves  secure  against  want,  to  provide 
for  the  future,  and  lastly  to  feel  ourselves  removed  from  the  necessity  of 
anxiety  and  work.  From  the  days  of  Adam  man  in  general  has  been  put 
under  the  pressure  of  toil.  To  earn  his  bread  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow 
was  the  fiat  that  went  forth  to  man  from  the  garden  of  Eden.  To  make  the 
conquests  in  life  more  toilsome  the  earth  was  cursed  by  weeds  and  pests  that 
never  left  him  secure  in  the  knowledge  that  he  would  always  reap  the  har- 
vest he  had  planned.  He  needed  hope  and  faith.  He  was  not  to  be  left  in 
a  state  of  self-satisfaction. 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  9 

The  earth  had  to  be  redeemed,  not  only  in  the  end,  but  continually, 
by  the  labor  and  faith  of  her  children.  Redemption  is  not  merely  a  final 
act.  It  is  a  continuous  struggle  for  conquest  and  restoration.  We  are  made 
redeemers  by  the  life-long  effort  to  conquer  day  by  day  the  difficulties  that 
beset  us.  It  is  a  delusion  that  men  suffer  from  when  they  imagine  they 
may  be  redeemed  by  some  act  of  contrition  and  repentance  in  the  final 
stages  of  their  existence.  We  have  a  mission  to  conquer  not  alone  the 
soil  and  animal  life  but  the  forces  of  nature  which  abound  in  wealth  for  the 
happiness  and  blessing  of  mankind.  The  wealth  of  these  conquests  surpasses 
the  fondest  hopes  of  a  selfish  imagination.  Man  has  found  a  means  of 
amassing  fortunes  through  the  revelations  of  science  and  invention.  These 
fortunes  have  become  prodigious,  but  along  with  them  increased  poverty  and 
suffering.  In  our  day,  and  for  a  number  of  years  past,  we  have  been  com- 
pelled to  witness  the  feeding  of  school  children  at  public  expense  because 
their  bodies  were  not  sufficiently  nourished  to  support  the  brain.  Chari- 
table institutions  have  multiplied  greatly  since  the  wealth  of  modern  dis- 
covery has  been  poured  in  upon  the  human  family.  Luxury  and  waste  have 
gone  hand  in  hand  with  the  increase  of  means  provided  by  a  benevolent 
Providence  for  the  comfort  of  his  children. 

Luxury. — A  few  years  ago  men  saw  the  accumulation  of  capital  in  such 
enormous  quantities  that  they  were  sure  money  would  go  begging  and  in- 
terest whose  burden  rested  heavily  upon  them,  would  be  lowered  to  a  mini- 
mum. But  luxury  has  always  kept  pace  with  production.  The  automobile 
came  into  vogue  and  capital  was  swallowed  in  a  new  pleasure.  Usury  was 
a  curse  upon  the  people  of  God  in  olden  times,  and  through  all  the  ages 
since  it  has  lain  heavily  upon  the  world  at  large.  The  sinful  conditions  of 
waste  were  potent  causes  in  the  destruction  of  nations  in  the  past.  One  of 
the  most  conspicuous  nations  of  the  world  was  ancient  Rome,  whose  citizens 
vied  with  each  other  in  the  extravagances  they  were  able  to  display.  The 
sad  story  of  the  fall  of  ancient  Rome  contains  the  evidences  of  debauchery 
which  waste  brought  upon  her  people.  Waste  is  a  grievous  sin,  destructive 
alike  to  nations  and  individauls.  Men  cannot  violate  the  law  of  steward- 
ship without  bringing  upon  themselves  the  penalty  of  heaven.  A  wealthy 
man  lived,  in  one  of  the  parables  of  the  Savior,  who  had  filled  his  barn,  se- 
cured himself  against  privation,  and  so  could  "eat,  drink,  and  be  merry." 
Such  a  man  Christ  characterized  as  a  fool.  "This  night  thy  soul  shall  be 
required  of  thee,"  and  all  men  die  when  they  escape  responsibility  to  their 
fellow  men  and  to  God.  Job  was  a  perfect  man  and  a  wealthy  man,  but  he 
was  a  just  steward.  "The  Lord  giveth  and  the  Lord  taketh  away."  He  lived 
to*  praise  God  and  was  filled  with  gratitude,  a  quality  of  heart  that  every 
rich  man  should  possess. 

Has  the  world  amassed  wealth  in  the  spirit  of  stewardship?  If  for 
selfish  purposes  men  possess  the  earth,  and  waste  the  products  of  the  labor 
of  man,  they  prepare  themselevs  for  a  spiritual  death  which  means  calamity 
to  the  human  race.  We  may  possess  but  we  may  not  waste.  Waste  means 
luxury,  idleness,  and  sin.  It  is  a  plague  let  loose  upon  mankind.  All  the 
world  dominion  wars  which  have  destroyed  nations  have  been  the  leveling 
processes  by  which  God  punished  the  waste,  extravagances  and  injustices  of 
his  children.  There  is  no  more  dangerous  symptom  in  the  diagnosis  of 
national  and  individual  life  than  the  spirit  of  waste,  the  mother  of  extrava- 
gance and  sin. 

Nor  is  waste  a  sin  only  amongst  the  rich;  it  is  a  habit  alike  of  the  poor 
whose  ambitions  are  to  ape  the  rich.  Extravagance  lays  waste  not  only  the 
material  substance  of  man,  but  it  destroys  his  physical,  spiritual,  and  in- 
tellectual well-being.  The  moral  waste  becomes  an  irreparable  loss  to  the 
world.  It  invites  strife,  contention,  and  war.  Behold  the  holocaust  of  war, 
and  ponder  the  destruction  it  is  bringing  to  life  and  property.  A  statement 
of  the  world's  losses  through  war  is  so  forcefully  put  by  the  Berliner  Tage- 
blatt  that  I  quote  it  at  length,  from  its  publication  of  August  25,  1917: 

War   and   waste.— "War    loans,    $87,000,000,000;    loss    in    dead    and 

wounded,  24,000,000  men;  killed,  7,000,000  men;  loss  through  decrease 

in  birth  rate  in  all  belligerent  countries,  9,000,000. 


10  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

"Gold  production  of  the  world  during  the  last  500  years  amounted 
to  $15,000,000,000,  or  less  than  one  fifth  of  the  cost  of  the  awful  world 
war.  In  five-dollar  gold  pieces,  the  $87,000,000,000  raised  in  war  loans 
would  form  a  belt  that  could  be  wound  around  the  earth  nine  times. 
The  funeral  cortege  of  the  7,000,000  killed  would  reach  from  Paris  to 
Vladivostok,  if  one  hearse  followed  another. 

"When  the  war  began  the  combined  public  debt  of  the  European 
states  was  a  little  over  $25,000,000,000,  and  now  it  is  over  $112,000,000,- 
000.  The  British  merchant  fleet  in  1914  represented  a  value  of  about 
$950,000,000.  That  is  less  than  the  annual  interest  England  now  has  to 
pay  for  her  war  debt.  Before  tbe  war  Germany  exported  goods  to 
British  colonies  to  the  amount  of  $113,000,000  a  year.  By  cutting  off  this 
export,  England  can  eventually  reimburse  herself  for  her  losses,  but 
this  will  take  more  than  200  years. 

"Germany,  with  the  amount  spent  by  her  for  the  war,  could  have 
.  bought  all  the  cotton  fields,  copper  mines,  and  the  whole  petroleum  in- 
dustry of  the  United  States  and  still  would  have  had  several  billion  dol- 
lars left  over. 

"Russia,  with  her  war  expenses,  might  have  covered  her  immense 
territories  with  a  net  of  railways  as  close  as  that  of  Belgium  and  France, 
whose  losses  in  men  are  larger  than  the  entire  population  of  Alsace- 
Lorraine,  could  have  bought  all  the  Portuguese  and  Dutch  colonies  with 
the  money  she  sacrificed  for  the  war. 

"With  the  enormous  wealth  destroyed  by  the  war,  Europe  might 
have  made  a  paradise  on  earth  instead  of  a  howling  wilderness.  There 
is  no  doubt  the  awful  struggle  would  have  been  avoided  if  the  nations 
had  had  any  idea  of  its  enormity  when  it  started." 

A  little  coterie  of  men  at  Potsdam,  Germany,  on  July  5,  1914,  lit  the 
torch  that  set  the  world  in  flames.  The  fire  is  still  raging  and  no  man  seeth 
the  end  of  its  destruction.  The  war  is  making  an  army  of  millionaires, 
and  new  conditions  of  wealth  will  arise  that  are  likely  to  complicate  the 
troubles  that  are  sure  to  arise  between  capital  and  labor.  Selfishness  will 
probably  keep  pace  with  the  new  conditions.  As  a  consequence,  envy  and 
disappointment  among  the  masses  mrfy  ripen  into  hatreds  that  in  turn  will 
be  destructive  to  the  domestic  peace  of  the  nations.  The  rich  will  have 
resting  upon  them  a  fearful  responsibility  because  in  their  power  will  be  the 
stability  of  society  and  the  contentment  of  labor.  Luxury  and  waste  will 
create  dangers  to  the  stability  of  nations. 

If  the  ambition  of  wealth  is  the  display  of  it,  men  will  bury  their  talents, 
and  the  burial  of  many  talents  is  a  greater  sin  than  the  burial  of  one.  Com- 
plications and  dangers  are  plain  enough  to  see,  but  who  can  forecast  a  rem- 
edy? There  are  millions  given  to  institutions,  often  to  honor  a  name  or 
satisfy  an  ambition.  The  needs  of  humanity  are  too  frequently  overlooked. 

Ambition  for  Power. — Money  strives  for  power.  Newspapers,  magazines, 
instituions  of  learning,  and  vast  industries  have  their  compelling  force  upon 
public  opinion,  because  they  are  largely  the  creations  of  the  rich.  For  the 
past  fifty  years  there  has  grown  up  in  Germany  a  so-called  "Junker"  class, 
as  ambitious  as  it  has  been  rich.  Its  wealth  was  turned  to  selfish  and 
national  aggrandizement.  It  educated  the  masses  to  believe  in  war.  By 
its  great  publications  and  influence  the  whole  national  life  was  lured  into 
false  hopes.  It  not  only  dragged  its  own  nation  into  war,  but  brought  war 
upon  nearly  all  the  world.  Wealth  has  there  and  in  other  lands  be- 
come the  most  destructive  element  in  the  social  and  economic  life  of  man- 
kind. 

Noble  Examples. — The  conservation  of  wealth  entails  a  sacred  duty  on 
the  part  of  those  who  possess  it.  There  has  always  been  a  dangerous  fallacy 
among  men  that  their  money  is  their  own  and  they  may  do  with  it  what 
they  like.  The  idea  of  stewardship  has  been  foreign  to  their  own  minds. 
There  has  never  in  all  history  been  a  law  that  could  beneficially  regulate  it. 
It  has  been  a  part  of  the  exercise  of  the  free  agency  of  man.  God  gave  a 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  11 

law  of  control  and  distribution  to  ancient  Israel,  but  its  provisions  were 
shamefully  disregarded,  and  his  people  paid  the  penalty  in  poverty  and  sor- 
row. Christ  exalted  the  poor  from  their  lowly  estate,  or  would  have  done 
so,  had  they  accepted  his  teachings.  He  made  the  way  plain.  His  spirit 
was  a  guide  to  rich  and  poor  alike.  The  loss  of  that  spirit  has  meant  in- 
dividual  and  national  bankruptcy.  The  burning  question  of  the  world  today 
is  the  recovery  of  the  loss  of  God's  favor  among  his  children.  Will  it  be 
possible  for  them  to  recover  the  blessing,  the  birthright  they  have  so 
frivolously  bartered  away.  They  are  just  as  much  mistaken  about  the  value 
of  wealth  as  Esau  was  about  his  mess  of  pottage.  In  the  end  Esau  gave 
a  "loud  cry."  It  was  the  cry  of  despair.  We  have  in  Abraham  a  beautiful 
example  of  a  man  of  wealth.  When  the  Assyrians  carried  off  the  inhabitants 
of  the  cities  of  the  plain,  together  with  their  flocks  and  herds,  he  was  sat- 
isfied to  take  back  in  his  campaign  against  them  the  booty  they  had  carried 
off.  He  restored  it  to  its  owners,  and  would  have  no  reward  for  himself. 
His  unaffected  acts  of  charity,  and  unselfishness  in  the  distribution  of  land 
with  Lot  make  him  an  ideal  with  respect  to  the  stewardship  of  his  posses- 
sions. Of  the  things  of  this  world  he  had  plenty,  but  the  ambition  of  his 
life  was  not  to  keep  what  he  had  and  to  jtet  more.  He  was  constantly  crav- 
ing the  favor  of  Jehovah.  He  would  have  children,  and  he  had  none,  not- 
withstanding God's  promises  to  him.  He  saw  in  them  a  blessing. 

How  the  world  is  turned  around  today !  What  Abraham  would  treasure, 
the  world  today  esteems  lightly;  what  Abraham  would  esteem  lightly  the 
world  is  seeking  in  a  spirit  of  madness. 

The  Saints  of  God  in  this  dispensation  have  been  and  are  warned  against 
the  dangers  of  worldly  gain.  Has  it  become  a  passion  with  any  of  them? 
Do  those  who  have  acquired  an  abundance  of  wealth  regard  it  in  the  spirit 
of  a  stewardship?  Do  they  feel  that  it  lays  upon  them  a  heavy  responsi- 
Hlity?  Do  any  of  them  sense  the  dangers  of  luxury,  extravagance,  and 
waste?  Do  the  faithful,  by  their  pronounced  disapproval,  discountenance 
everywhere  manifestations  of  wasteful  pride  and  vain  ambitions? 

Revelation  to  Joseph  Smith,  1831. — Behold,  I,  the  Lord,  in  the  beginning 
blessed  the  waters,  but  in  the  last  days,  by  the  mouth  of  my  servant  John,  I 
fcursed  the  waters; 

"Wherefore,  the  days  will  come  that  no  flesh  will  be  safe  upon  the 
Ivaters."  Doc.  and  Cov.  61:14-15. 

"For  all  flesh  is  corrupted  before  me;  and  the  powers  of  darkness  pre- 
tail  upon  the  earth,  among  the  children  of  men,  in  the  presence  of  all  the 
hosts  of  heaven, 

"Which  causeth  silence  to  reign,  and  all  eternity  is  pained,  and  the  an- 
gels are  waiting  the  great  command  to  reap  down  the  earth,  to  gather  the 
lares  that  they  may  be  burned;  and  behold,  the  enemy  is  combined."  Doc. 
Ind  Cov.  38:11-12. 


V.— Religion  and  the  War 

Fear. — There  was  a  very  general  belief  throughout  the  world  that  the 
Jvar  would  bring  a  new  devotion  to  religion.  Observations  of  ministers  and 
kiembers  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  do  not  bear  out  such  an  expectation.  "Fear 
bf  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom."  It  was  not  the  fear  of  the  Lord 
lo  much  as  it  was  fear  of  consequences  on  the  battlefield  that  in  the  be- 
ginning awakened  a  movement  toward  prayer.  It  is  said  soon  to  have  died 
out.  Interviews  with  French  soldiers  indicate  a  sort  of  philosophy  about 
life  and  death  that  bordered  somewhat  on  fatalism.  It  was  called  the 
philosophy  of  good  cheer,  a  sort  of  reconciliation  to  whatever  might  happen. 
It  was  French  optimism  put  into  aphorisms.  The  Christian  World  Pulpit, 
of  July  25,  1917,  contains  a  sermon  on  the  subject  of  fatalism  by  George 
Lawrence,  in  which  he  says: 

"A  soldier  said  to  me  in  a  dugout  in  the  trenches,  'If  I  am  born  to 
be  drowned,  I  shall  not  be  shot.'  The  subject  under  discussion  was 
fatalism.  It  is  because  I  recognize  the  subtle  danger  of  this  doctrine 


12  PROBLFMS  OF  THE  AGE 

that  I  venture  to  combat  it.  Under  its  influence,  soldiers  have  been 
known  to  invite  danger,  run  unnecessary  risks,  and  even  to  play  with 
the  chances  of  death.  They  believed,  until  they  were  hit,  the  bullet 
intended  for  them  had  not  yet  left  the  munition  factory.  You  can  readily 
understand  what  havoc  a  doctrine  like  this  can  work.  It  is  criminal  to 
tell  soldiers  going  to  France  that  their  death  on  the  battlefield  is  de- 
creed for  them  by  fate.  It  undermines  their  security  in  themselves, 
destroys  their  self-confidence,  and  renders  them  unfit  for  the  proper  dis- 
charge of  their  duties.  I  wish  to  convince  you  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
fate.  Our  destinies  are  not  controlled,  nor  our  death  decreed  by  it  If 
they  are  we  must  then  excuse  the  ruthless  submarine  murders,  the  bar- 
barities, and  horrible  atrocities  of  the  enemy." 

Much  has  been  written  of  the  Russian  predisposition  to  fatalism.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  the  British  have  a  really  crystallized  belief  on  the  subject. 
It  is  rather  an  abandonment  to  despair,  perhaps  an  effort  to  meet  a  danger- 
ous situation  in  a  spirit  of  indifference.  Whatever  you  call  it,  it  represents 
the  antipode  of  true  religion.  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  in  this  extremity 
the  scales  tip  away  from  religion.  The  thoughts  and  feelings  of  such  have 
in  the  past  been  schooled  away  from  a  working  belief  in  God.  Such  an 
abandonment,  or  fatalism,  if  you  choose  to  call  it  such,  reveals  a  total  lack 
of  conviction  about  the  most  important  thing  in  the  world.  Religious  con- 
victions at  the  front  would  be  rather  an  effect  of  the  previous  beliefs  and 
practices  than  the  sentiments  which  the  war  would  create.  That,  as  a  rule, 
has  been  the  history  of  religion  in  war.  War  itself  does  not  have  a  very 
moralizing  effect  on  soldiers.  It  invites  too  many  vices,  and  is  surrounded 
by  too  many  temptations  and  evil  influences.  It  tests  human  life  in  its 
weakest  places,  and  it  is  the  scene  of  too  many  horrors.  There  will  of 
course  be  those  whose  early  training  and  habits  are  conducive  to  a  prayerful 
attitude  in  the  presence  of  eternity.  Such  wars  usually  indicate  a  decadent 
period  in  the  life  of  nations.  The  enormous  number  of  rejects  clearly 
prove  a  physical  and  moral  deterioration.  That,  too,  is  the  belief  of  those 
who  have  given  the  matter  study  and  attention.  Rev.  Elmer  F.  Clark  of  the 
Y  M.  C.  A.  discusses  the  question  of  the  church  in  England  and  France. 
Speaking  of  England,  he  says  in  the  Literary  Digest,  Sept.  8,  1917: 

Conditions  at  the  Front.— "She  has  the  most  evangelical  type  of  re- 
ligion in  Europe  and  has  long  been  proud  of  her  Sabbath-keeping 
scrupulosity  anil  her  religion  generally.  In  the  first  four  months  of 
the  war  all  signs  pointed  to  the  fact  that  the  church's  expectation  was 
to  be  abundantly  fulfilled.  The)  people  flocked  to  the  churches,  resorted 
to  prayer,  and  gnve  all  evidences  of  a  quickening  religious  life.  In  these 
months  it  appear  td  that  a  great  religious  revival  was  imminent. 

"But  this  ei;ly  religious  awakening  was  founded  in  fear,  and  fear 
is  a  motive  that  cannot  long  support  an  intelligent  faith.  '  *  *  To- 
day the  average  person  traveling  through  Europe  would  certainly  see  no 
signs  of  renewed  interest  in  things  religious,  and  even  the  specialist  who 
investigates  intensely  and  studies  all  known  signs  and  evidences,  will 
discover  but  few.  In  London  and  Paris,  as  well  as  in  all  other  towns 
and  cities  I  have  visited,  vice  is  as  rampant  as  ever,  the  general  popula- 
tion are  as  little  concerned  with  eternal  matters,  and  the  church  faces 
the  same  problems  of  sin  and  indifference. 

"In  France  there  are  encouraging  signs,  but  in  England  there  are 
none.  Those  signs  in  France  appear  here  and  there  in  the  fact  that  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  is  adopting  a  more  modern  attitude  and  pre- 
senting a  more  vital  and  evangelistic  message. 

"What  about  prayer?  People  never  prayed  so  much  as  they  did 
at  the  beginning  of  hostilities.  Yet  what  did  their  prayers  avail?  The 
war  went  right  on,  and  men  were  killed  just  the  same.  And  there  was 
no  distinction.  The  son  of  the  man  who  prayed  for  the  boy's  safety 
night  and  day  was  killed  as  quickly  as  the  son  of  the  man  who  recog- 
nized no  God  to  whom  one  might  pray.  The  prayers  were  not  answered 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  13 

in  the  least.    What,  then,  was  the  good  of  prayers,  and  where  was  God? 
Perhaps  there  is  no  God  after  all. 

"This  doubt  and  uncertainty  affected  many  people,  from  the  clergy- 
man to  the  Tommy." 

Importuning  God  in  a  perilous  hour  is  an  almost  universal  human  trait. 
But  what  is  the  actuating  spirit?  Too  often  it  is  fear  and  not  love.  What 
a  different  prayer  from  that  of  Christ  in  the  garden  of  Gethsemane: 

"O  my  Father,  if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  away  from  me: 
nevertheless,  not  as  I  will,  but  as  thou  wilt." 

Such  a  prayer  is  not  fatalism;  it  is  a  sweet  resignation  to  the  will  of 
God.  The  false  premise  of  it  all  is  that  death  is  a  calamity.  Who  shall  say 
it  may  not  be  after  all  a  divine  favor?  Death  is  not  the  end,  but  it  is 
the  aim  of  all  life.  The  time  and  manner  may  not  be  the  important  thing 
about  death.  We  are  dealing  with  divine  purposes  which  are  largely  hidden 
from  the  world.  The  important  thing  about  death  is  that  we  are  prepared  to 
go,  that  on  the  other  side  we  may  give  a  good  account  of  our  stewardship 
here. 

Nature  God. — Then  there  is  that  other  vital  question, — what  kind  of  God 
are  we  imploring?  There  is  nothing  in  the  world  very  clear  about  the  God 
of  nature — not  the  God  of  nature  but  the  nature-god.  The  soldier  sees  man 
making  great  headway  into  the  realm  of  such  a  God.  That  makes  the  hu- 
man a  super-man — a  little  above  the  nature-god. 

Disintegration. — Mr  H.  G.  Wells  a  celebrated  English  writer,  discusses 
The  God  of  the  New  Age.  Mr.  Wells  would  do  away  with  church  edifices, 
as  well  as  rituals  and  creeds.  Ex-President  Roosevelt  takes  issue  in  the  fol- 
lowing number,  October,  1917,  of  the  Ladies  Home  Journal.  I  quote: 

"It  is  perfectly  true  that  occasional  individuals  or  families  may  have 
nothing  to  do  with  church  or  with  religious  practices  and  observances, 
and  yet  maintain  the  highest  standard  of  spirituality  and  of  ethical  ob- 
ligation. 

"But  this  does  not  affect  the  case  of  the  world  as  it  now  is,  any 
more  than  exceptional  men  and  women  under  exceptional  conditions 
have  disregarded  the  marriage  tie  without  harm  to  themselves  interferes 
with  the  larger  fact  that  such  disregard  if  at  all  common  means  the 
complete  moral  disintegration  of  the  body  politic.  *  *  *  Therefore, 
on  Sunday  go  to  church.  Yes,  I  know  all  the  excuses;  I  know  that 
one  can  worship  the  Creator  and  dedicate  oneself  to  a  good  living  in  a 
grove  of  trees,  or  by  a  running  brook,  or  in  one's  own  house,  just  as 
well  as  in  church.  But  I  also  know,  as  a  matter  of  cold  fact,  that  the 
average  man  does  not  thus  worship  or  thus  dedicate  himself.  If  he  stays 
away  from  church  he  does  not  spend  his  time  in  good  works  or  in 
lofty  meditation." 

Mr.  Wells  sees  a  general  breaking  away  from  the  world  creeds.  He 
sees  that  the  world  will  need  something  different  after  the  war — a  new  re- 
ligion. But  will  the  world  accept  Mr.  Wells'  new  theories?  Really  there  is 
nothing  new  about  them.  It  is  the  old  story  that  man  can  worship  any  way, 
anywhere  he  pleases.  Authority  in  religion,  especially  in  the  protestant 
world,  is  breaking  down — if  it  is  not  entirely  gone.  Reconstructing  old  re- 
ligious practices  and  theories  will  not  answer  in  the  future.  In  the  new 
world  to  come  there  must  be  a  new  revelation.  When  the  new  conditions 
of  worship  come,  it  will  be  because  God's  Spirit  moves  the  hearts  of  men 
and  shows  them  the  way  of  his  will.  Will  sobriety  come  after  the  war,  will 
men  give  heed  to  religious  thought  and  living?  If  not,  the  end  of  sorrow 
will  not  come  at  the  end  of  the  war.  It  begins  to  look  as  if  the  grinding 
process  would  go  on.  There  is  something  to  hope  for  from  the  war.  Its 
end  must  come  in  the  not  far  distant  future. 

If  it  has  no  sobering  effect  upon  the  religious  life  of  the  world  it  will 
be  because  of  the  hardness  of  men's  hearts,  because  the  voices  of  anguish  and 
despair  have  not  penetrated  them.  Humility  is  one  of  the  corner  stones  of 


14  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

religion.  Will  war  bring  humility?  To  whom?  Not  to  the  victors.  They 
will  exalt  themselves  in  their  own  pride.  With  them  God  will  be  on  the 
side  of  the  heaviest  artillery. 

Hatreds  of  War. — When  men  fight  they  are  not  usually  in  a  mood  to 
pray.  Too  often  their  suffering  brings  hatred.  They  are  not  like  Job.  In 
their  agony  they  are  ready  to  curse  God  and  die.  Their  deaths  are  not 
saint-like — not  offered  up  in  the  spirit  of  sacrifice.  From  all  human  ex- 
perience and  from  history,  it  may  as  a  general  rule  be  said  that  war  destroys 
religion.  There  will  of  course  be  exceptions,  and  men  may  go  to  battle 
from  the  loftiest  motives  and  a  holy  cause.  Wars  have  their  well-defined 
history;  indeed,  history  is  made  up  chiefly  of  wars.  As  we  look  back  upon 
it,  we  need  not  doubt  that  in  most  of  them  there  has  been  a  "handwriting  on 
the  wall."  There  is  reason  to  pray  before  the  battle,  and  those  who  do  so 
will  not  be  left  without  the  spirit  of  prayer,  which  may  be  of  more  value  to 
them  than  life  or  death.  The  blessings  come  to  those  who  earn  them,  and 
they  may  be  earned  in  war  as  they  are  earned  in  peace. 

Revelation. — 

"And  this  gospel  shall  be  preached  unto  every  nation,  and  kindred, 
and  tongue,  and  people. 

"And  the  servants  of  God  shall  go  forth,  saying,  with  a  loud  voice,  Fear 
God  and  give  glory  to  him,  for  the  hour  of  his  judgment  is  come."  Doc. 
andCov.  103:37,  38. 


VI. — Conservation  of  Life 

Life's  Mission. — As  a  definition  of  the  purposes  of  all  life,  we  may  say 
that  its  mission  is  to  live,  produce  its  kind,  and  die.  There  is  nothing  in 
such  a  definition  to  explain  a  multitude  of  attributes  and  peculiarities  of 
human  life;  but  out  of  the  three  duties,  to  live,  to  produce  our  kind,  and  to 
die,  may  develop  the  secondary  functions  of  our  being.  Our  duty  to  live  is 
what  in  this  chapter  we  may  term  the  "conservation  of  life."  Whatever  robs 
us  of  our  vital  powers,  our  ability  to  live,  takes  from  us  so  much  of  our  des- 
ignated mission  in  the  world.  We  have  no  right  to  assume  that  it  is  all 
right  if  we  continue  indifferent  to  our  existence,  for  our  existence  is  tied  up 
with  the  existence  of  others.  We  are  part  of  an  organized  life.  We  belong 
to  a  class  of  social  beings  who  have  a  united  mission  in  the  world,  that  can 
be  accomplished  in  keeping  with  the  Divine  purposes  only  as  we  protect 
our  bodies  and  fit  them  for  a  sound  and  long  life — th,e  life  allotted  to  man. 

The  Interdependence  of  Life. — There  is  a  relationship  in  all  living 
things  that  is  frequently  overlooked  when  our  duty  to  life  in  different  as- 
pects is  considered.  Man  in  the  Garden  of  Eden  was  commanded  to  till 
the  earth.  In  other  words,  he  was  to  promote  life  both  in  the  animal  and  in 
the  vegetable  kingdoms.  That  was  a  part  of  his  duty,  and  that  duty  is  just 
as  pronounced  today  as  it  was  then.  In  order  that  our  lives  may  become  as 
full  and  as  complete  as  God  intended  them,  we  must  strive  to  bring  our- 
selves in  harmony  with  all  life,  not  merely  with  the  life  of  human  beings. 
The  man  who  cultivates  a  blade  of  grass,  who  promotes  life  in  its  simplest 
form  in  the  vegetable  kingdom,  promotes  likewise  his  own  life.  He  makes 
his  own  life  better  than  the  man  who  stands  aloof,  who  says,  "It  is  not  my 
business  to  cultivate  the  soil;  it  is  not  my  business  to  encourage  growth, 
except  within  my  own  body."  And  although  the  shepherd,  the  peasant, 
have  in  all  ages  stood  at  the  bottom  of  the  social  scale,  they  have  had  about 
them  qualities  of  endurance  that  have  made  them  survive  through  all  con- 
ditions of  social  life. 

"A  sturdy  peasantry,  a  country's  pride, 
When  once  destroyed,  can  never  be  revived." 

Life  a  Religious  Duty. — The  Latter-day  Saints,  in  settling  the  valleys  of 
the  mountains,  were  called  to  a  rural  life.  Their  earliest  teachings  por- 
trayed superior  advantages  of  man's  intimate  communication  with  nature, 
that  was  both  to  live  and  help  live;  and  therefore,  he  was  instructed  in  the 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  15 

religion  of  good  farming,  of  progressive  animal  industry  He  was  building 
up  a  new  communion  of  life.  Because  the  sermons  of  those  days  took  on 
the  practical  character  of  men's  daily  life,  they  were  ridiculed  as  being  de- 
void of  spirituality,  whereas  man's  spiritual  powers  are  enriched  by  his 
association  with  nature,  by  his  companionship  with  those  forms  of  life 
which  God  created  in  the  beginning  for  his  sustenance. 

Our  Duties  under  a  More  Complex  Life. — As  we  have  progressed  in  a 
material  way,  there  has  grown  up  among  us  a  large  so-called  middle-class, 
men  whose  duties  keep  them  from  the  intimate  association  with  nature 
which  they  formerly  enjoyed.  The  new  life,  however,  does  not  relieve  them 
of  the  duties  that  belong  to  our  duties  in  the  world.  It  is  always  a  helpful 
sign  when  merchants,  mechanics,  manufacturers,  feel  a  love  for  the  soil,  plan 
the  growth  of  living  things,  and  look  to  the  soil  for  an  enjoyment  that  so- 
ciety does  not  give.  We  nave  perverted  our  lives  through  social  ambitions, 
when  we  should  have  striven  to  become  producers,  and  thus  take  part  in  the 
conservation  of  life. 

Conservation  of  life  here  does  not  mean  simply  that  we  are  to  save  oar 
own  bodies,  that  we  are  to  make  them  strong  and  healthy  merely;  while  it 
does  include  these  duties,  it  has  a  higher  meaning,  a  meaning  of  a  Celestial 
character.  If  we  may  farm  on  a  large  scale,  well  and  good.  If  circum- 
stances prevent  it,  we  may  raise  a  garden  or  work  in  an  orchard;  but  no 
matter  how  humble  our  circumstances  in  life,  we  are  never  so  poor  that 
there  may  not  be  a  charm  of  life  about  our  home,  and  the  cascade  of 
flowers  that  hangs  about  the  window.  There  is  something  in  the  growth  of 
living  things  that  makes  for  higher  morality  and  greater  worldly  efficiency. 
So  we  are  called  to  promote  life  in  some  form,  and  he  who  feels  merely  the 
sensation  of  his  own  living  without  enjoying  the  touch  of  life  that  God 
has  given  about  him  can  never  be  the  highest  conservator  of  human  progress. 

Our  Children's  Lives. — It  is  our  duty  not  alone  to  conserve  our  own 
lives  but  to  conserve  the  lives  of  our  children;  to  bring  them  into  touch 
with  nature;  to  interest  them  in  the  myriad  forms  of  life  about  them,  to 
watch  it,  to  follow  it,  to  enjoy  it,  and  to  utilize  it.  Such  habits  in  child  life 
detract  from  the  constant  temptation  to  become  self-absorbed.  This  self- 
absorption  has  much  to  do  in  leading  our  young  people  away  from  the 
higher  ideals  of  the  world.  This  self-absorption  creates  selfishness,  selfish- 
ness makes  our  youth  unhappy,  robs  them  of  faith  and  destroys  their  lives. 
It  is  a  real  hindrance  to  the  progress  of  youth  to  rob  it  of  an  association 
with  nature.  A  horse  means  more  to  a  boy  than  something  to  ride  or  lo 
drive.  It  means  a  new  interest;  it  means  companionship  of  God's  life  mani- 
fested in  the  creation  of  animals 

What  a  beautiful  thing  it  is  to  read  the  account  of  the  Creation  con- 
tained i  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis!  How  beautiful  it  is  to  imagine  such 
a  period  in  the  world  when  all  that  exists  helps  and  sustains  human  life  is 
brought  into  being.  If  such  living  things  were  a  part  of  God's  unbounded 
interest  in  man,  it  is  the  duty  of  man  to  keep  himself  in  touch  with  the 
things  that  were  created  for  his  joy  and  needs  in  life. 

Our  Girls. — There  is  no  greater  mistake  made  than  the  all  too  common 
belief  that  there  must  be  a  complete  separation  between  our  girls  and  the 
soil.  Woman's  mission  in  life  is  more  intimate  with  the  functions  of  birth 
than  that  of  man.  She  should  feel  the  inspiration,  the  strength,  and  the  value 
that  come  to  humanity  from  all  the  living  things  of  God's  creation.  There  is 
no  fancy  work  so  beautiful  as  the  flower.  The  burdens  of  the  farm  are  not 
hers  to  carry,  but  there  is  the  garden,  the  flower  beds,  the  living  animals 
and  things  about  home  that  should  enter  into  woman's  conceptions  of 
broader  and  better  life.  To  her  education  the  companionship  of  the  vege- 
table and  animal  world  belongs.  It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  there  come 
to  us  in  life  great  benefits  through  a  spirit  of  inspiration.  We  may  not  de- 
fine it,  we  may  not  trace  its  workings,  we  may  not  measure  its  values,  but 
it  helps  us.  It  enlarges  our  visions  of  life.  It  is  the  breath  of  life  that  we 
need  today.  God  is  changing  things  in  this  world  of  ours.  Women  are 
breaking  away  from  the  stifling  atmosphere  of  a  dusty  past;  they  work  on 


16  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

the  farm,  they  are  harrowing  in  the  garden,  they  are  taking  upon  themselves 
the  duties  that  belong  to  the  broader  world  from  which  they  have  been  too 
long  removed.  In  the  earlier  days  of  our  history  in  Utah,  women  felt  and 
loved  the-  touch  of  nature.  They  felt  the  inspiration  of  all  life  about  them. 
They  sometimes  went  to  the  field,  more  frequently  to  the  garden,  and  la- 
bored among  the  domestic  animals  that  contributed  to  the  support  of  the 
home.  For  this  they  were  ridiculed  by  the  magazines  and  papers  of  the 
world.  They  were  held  up  as  slaves;  they  were  cartooned.  But  their  con- 
ceptions of  life  were  sound.  Their  examples  of  industry  and  out-door 
life  have  won  out,  and  the  world  has  come  to  realize  that  what  was  in  their 
hearts  to  do  was  the  God-ordained  end  of  human  happiness  to  conserve  life. 
A  false  modesty  and  false  social  conceptions  drove  them  from  the  simpler 
and  plainer  duties  of  their  life  into  the  maukish  ways  of  an  artificial  world 
about  them.  The  war  is  now  demonstrating  the  truth  of  woman's  place  in 
the  living  world,  a  place  for  which  she  contended  in  the  earlier  days  of 
our  colonization  in  the  valleys  of  the  mountains. 


Vll.—A  Real  Danger  to  the  Middle  Class 

Growth. — In  general  terms  the  middle  class  may  be  said  to  occupy  a 
position  somewhere  along  the  line  between  the  producer  and  consumer. 
They  consist  of  distributors,  such  as  merchants  and  other  agencies — who 
take  from  the  producer  and  hand  to  the  consumer,  and  in  turn  become  a 
part  of  the  class  of  consumers.  Within  the  bounds  of  their  legitimate  call- 
ing they  are  benefactors  to  all  industrial  life.  They  are  common  carriers 
and  distributors  that  make  it  possible  for  all  the  world  to  enjoy  the  prod- 
ucts created  or  grown  in  every  part  of  the  earth.  Modern  commerce  is  a 
comparatively  new  field  of  human  endeavor.  It  has  for  centuries  been  a 
sparsely  occupied  field.  It  has  grown  rapidly  within  the  past  few  decades, 
and  is  therefore  today  full  of  adventure  and  of  reward.  It  has  called  for 
men  of  superior  talents,  and  has  invited  them  from  all  ranks  of  life.  Like 
other  new  fields  of  enterprise,  it  has  been  both  novel  and  remunerative. 
There  is  no  field  of  exploit  so  fascinating  and  paying  as  that  of  humanity. 
Out  of  it  myriads  of  fortunes  have  been  accumulated,  and  it  is  the  most 
attractive  of  all  adventures.  The  result  is  that  millions  have  flocked  to  it, 
and  incurred  the  danger  of  tipping  one  end  of  the  balance  board  into  the 
stream.  At  times  very  large  numbers  of  them  may  be  carried  down  stream 
or  drowned.  Nothing  seems  more  certain  at  the  present  juncture  of  human 
life  than  that  the  middle  class,  so  called,  is  altogether  beyond  the  needs  of 
industrial  life,  and  that  its  massed  formation  will  make  it  all  the  better  tar- 
get for  the  new  machine  guns  that  are  sure  to  be  turned  on  it  by  the  pres- 
ent and  coming  changes  in  organized  industry. 

The  same  inequality  in  industrial  life  has  more  than  once  in  the  history 
of  mankind  proved  disastrous  to  national  well-being.  Examine  for  a  mo- 
ment the  present  movement  of  life  into  the  great  cities,  where  men  and 
women  find  employment  in  occupations  that  are  emphemeral,  that  is, 
in  those  whose  chief  business  it  is  to  produce  luxuries  and  amuseme  ts  not 
necessary  for  the  support  of  mankind.  Take  as  examples  automobiles, 
movies,  and  every  conceivable  form  of  amusement.  Profitable  they  may  be 
in  prosperous  times,  but  such  employemnt  is  the  first  to  go  down  in  every 
industrial  crisis.  Luxuries  must  go.  The  pinch  of  the  rising  cost  of  living, 
and  the  dangers  of  financial  panics  may  at  any  time  reduce  millions  to  a 
state  of  starvation.  The  panics  of  the  future  will  not  be  what  those  of  the 
past  have  been.  Food  and  clothing  are  higher,  and  the  numbers  of  those 
outside  productive  life  are  so  much  greater,  that  a  serious  disturbance  in 
the  industrial  world  would  create  a  social  havoc  wholly  unknown  o  history. 
The  siren  of  false  business  principles  is  luring  thousands  into  the  danger 
zone.  What  is  not  done  by  adventurous  business  methods  to  entice  men 
and  women  away  from  safe  conditions  of  existence,  is  done  by  our  state 
and  national  legislative  bodies  that  are  creating  boards  and  commissions 
galore  to  meet  the  demands  of  those  who  are  chiefly  exploiters  of  human- 
ity. It  would  be  a  hopeless  task  to  tabulate  the  appendages  to  the  industrial 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  17 

life  of  our  nation.  When  men  cannot  find  legislative  aid  they  organize  clubs 
and  societies  that  are  today  really  becoming  a  burden  to  the  producer  and 
consumer.  It  is  sometimes  called  a  "speculative  life."  It  is  speculative,  for 
no  one  can  even  guess  the  dangers  it  carries  with  it. 

Ethical  Conditions. — Aside  from  its  dangers,  there  are  ethical  reasons 
why  such  a  life  is  disturbing  to  the  welfare  of  society  Nothing  does  more 
to  create  discontent  and  disappointment  than  speculation.  Those  who  fail 
despair  and  make  for  anarchy.  Those  who  succeed,  plunge  into  extrava- 
gances which  in  turn  lead  to  physical  and  moral  destruction.  The  spirit  of 
our  modern  world  is  largely  that  of  the  gambler.  "I'm  going  to  take  my 
chances"  is  the  announcement  before  a  leap  into  the  unknown  regions  of 
disaster  whichever  way  the  chances  go.  No  man  can  afford  to  take  Chances 
that  have  more  temptation  to  vice  than  he  can  endure.  To  fully  one-half 
which  thus  take  chances  there  comes  the  misery  of  envy  and  despair. 

Satisfaction  in  Production. — There  is  not  the  satisfaction  in  speculation 
that  there  is  in  production.  The  gains  of  contentment  in  the  latter  are  im- 
measurably greater  than  they  are  in  the  former.  The  mental  anxiety  over 
the  outcome  of  production  and  markets  when  judicious  labor  is  expended,  is 
incomparably  preferable  to  the  anxiety  of  a  pure  game  of  chance.  There 
is  a  solid  satisfaction  in  the  thought  that  you  have  helped  others  that  is  not 
found  in  the  all-too-prevalent  fact  that  you  have  "done"  others. 

He  who  raises  enough  grain  to  feed  a  hundred  others  besides  his  own 
family,  contributes  really  as  much  to  his  own  happiness  as  he  does  to  the 
welfare  of  society.  Such  is  the  ethical  side  of  productive  life. 

Physical  Enjoyment. — Nothing  need  be  said  of  physical  enjoyment.  I 
know  a  man  who  said  that  the  happiest  experience  of  his  life  was  when  he 
sat  by  the  warm  fire  of  a  friend's  home  in  Sterling,  Canada,  after  days  of 
great  activity  and  exposure  with  sheep,  when  the  thermometer  registered 
often  30  degrees  below  zero.  It  was  the  pleasure  that  comes  from  the  re- 
bound of  physical  activity  and  hardship  to  rest  and  comfort.  Rob  man  of 
physical  rest  and  recuperation  by  a  life  of  physical  ease  and  indulgence,  and 
you  rob  him  of  the  ability  to  enjoy  the  blessings  .of  his  existence.  A  world 
upside  down  is  sure  to  be  snagged. 

Warnings. — How  do  we  know  that  the  middle  class  is  upsetting  the  bal- 
ance of  a  safe  social  and  industrial  condition?  We  have  symptoms  enough 
to  warn  us  of  the  disease.  There  is  the  higher  cost  of  living,  there  is  an  in- 
crease of  vices  which  an  over-crowded  middle  class  always  produces,  and 
lastly,  we  have  the  disease  itself  in  the  most  violent  form.  War  has  always 
been  the  selfish  determination  of  one  or  more  nations  of  the  world  to  ex- 
ploit humanity.  The  soldiers  of  Europe  are  the  mo.ct  numerous  of  all  its 
middle  classes. 

The  worst  aspect  of  this  class  is  its  drift  away  from  religion.  It  may 
not  be  universal,  but  it  is  general.  There  is  less  religion  in  the  city  than  on 
the  farm;  there  is  less  religion  in  speculation  than  there  is  in  the  factory. 
Work  is  an  essential  part  of  religion,  even  physical  work.  That  explains 
why  among  the  Latter-day  Saints  men  of  affairs  are  chosen  to  so  many  places 
of  ecclesiastical  offices.  Members  of  the  Twelve  are  given  opportunity,  after 
their  spiritual  labors,  to  recuperate  in  some  form  of  activity.  They  urge  an 
active,  not  a  restful,  life.  Mental  action  is  not  sufficient  to  obtain  the  best 
results,  and  many  Church  authorities  engage  in  out-door  life  in  one  form  or 
another.  "Home  industry"  has  been  the  keynote  of  life  and  labor  among  the 
Saints,  and  they  have  been  warned  frequently  against  the  evils  and  dangers 
that  follow  those  who  shirk  toil. 

From  Producer  to  Consumer. — What  are  the  dangers  to  the  middle  class 
in  the  United  States  today?  There  is  now  on  foot  a  movement  which  is 
rapidly  increasing;  it  is  the  slogan,  "From  the  producer  direct  to  the  con- 
sumer." Its  dangers  to  the  distributors  of  the  middle  class  are  minimized 
by  those  it  is  most  likely  to  affect.  It  began  by  the  enactment  of  the  parcel 
post  system,  which  for  some  unaccountable  reason  did  not  make  a  monopoly 
of  it.  The  government  could  handle  all  the  business  cheaper  and  more  ef- 
fectively than  it  now  handles  the  part  of  it  which  the  express  companies 


IS  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

have  been  allowed  to  retain.  There  is  certain  to  be  a  strong  movement  in 
favor  of  the  government's  exclusive  control  and  an  extension  of  the  system 
that  will  make  the  government  the  greatest  business  institution  in  the 
United  States.  There  is  further  a  restive  spirit  against  overloading  the 

Sroducer  and  consumer  with  any  heavier  demand  from  the  middle  class, 
mil  recently  the  producer  felt  most  the  weight  of  this  load.  Men  and 
women  were  leaving  the  farm  for  city  life,  not  factory  life,  and  labor  be- 
came a  menacing  problem.  The  increase  by  our  agricultural  colleges  of 
men  whose  business  it  has  become  to  tell  the  farmer  how  to  do  rather  than 
to  do  themselves,  is  a  striking  illustration  of  a  tendency  to  ally  education 
with  the  middle  man  rather  than  with  the  producer.  Indeed,  that  is  the 
tendency  of  all  our  education.  It  is  making  that  class  of  society  most 
popular.  In  the  factories,  the  work  is  done  largely  by  foreigners.  The 
recruits  to  the  industrial  life  of  the  nation  are  not  supported  by  the  ideals 
and  aims  of  modern  education  in  the  United  States  as  they  should  be.  Years 
of  experience  in  education  convinced  the  writer  that  nearly  all  educational 
tilks  were  about  ideals,  aims,  and  ambitions,  rather  than  about  work,  duty, 
and  industrial  life.  The  professional  side  of  education  has  almost  oblit- 
erated its  industrial  side,  notwithstanding  that  we  putter  a  little  with  manual 
training.  The  enticing  influence  of  education  is  leading  the  great  army  of 
school  men  into  city  life.  How  large  an  army  of  this  middle  class  the  pro- 
ducer and  consumer  can  support  is  of  course  a  question,  but  that  the  load 
is  sure  to  bring  a  break-down,  no  thoughtful  person  can  deny.  A  newspaper 
in  Lethbridge,  Canada,  published  an  account  of  a  man  who  bought  a  barrel 
of  apples  in  which  he  found  the  following  card:  "I  sold  this  barrel  of 
apples  for  90c;  what  did  you  pay?"  The  purchaser  paid  $5.75.  The  high 
cost  of  living  is  the  most  vital  issue  in  the  world  today.  What  has  caused 
it?  The  most  potent  of  all  causes  has  been  the  unparalleled  increase  of  the 
middle  class  and  the  corresponding  decrease  of  producers,  especially  in  agri- 
culture, animal  husbandry,  and  fruit  growing.  To  add  to  the  danger  of  the 
situation,  there  is  a  growing  antagonism  toward  those  who  have  imposed 
themselves  by  various  agencies  upon  both  the  producer  and  the  consumer. 
Government  intervention  has  resulted,  and  it  is  not  likely  to  be  wholly  va- 
cated after  the  war. 

Dangers  of  Anarchy. — The  middle  class  has  heretofore  been  a  great 
bulwark  against  anarchy.  It  has  usually  been  well  fed  and  cared  for.  Let 
us  suppose  a  violent  suppression  of  this  class  through  famine  or  a  financial 
collapse — something  easily  imagined.  Famine  and  its  consequent  sufferings 
know  no  law.  This  preponderating  class  is  growing,  therefore,  dangerously 
large.  It  cannot  be  easily  provided  for,  and  any  movement  to  disperse  it 
would  be  deeply  resented.  How  can  such  a  large  mass  be  provided  for  in 
case  of  a  dispersion?  Other  forms  of  life  would  be  distasteful,  and  what- 
ever forced  them  away  from  their  present  pursuits  would  engender  hatred 
of  a  most  violent  form.  Hatred  is  the  stuff  from  which  wars  and  anarchy 
are  made.  Men  are  often  the  creatures  of  circumstances  over  which  they 
have  no  control.  The  world  has  ceased  to  be  merely  drifting:  it  is  at  sea, 
and  without  a  safeguard,  or  rudder.  Confusion  has  laid  its  perilous  hands 
upon  the  political  and  social  life  of  the  world.  President  Wilson  has  said 
that  "the  world  must  be  made  safe  for  democracy;"  and  Governor  McCall 
of  Massachusetts  has  added  that  "democracy  must  be  made  safe  for  the 
world.**  Can  there  be  a  godless  democracy?  The  world  long  will  be 
forced  to  seek  a  solution  of  conditions  that  are  so  full  of  danger  and  dis- 
aster to  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  mankind.  All  sorts  of  remedies  will 
be  sought;  but  outside  of  religion,  they  will  never  be  found. 

Revelation — "Behold,  I  sent  you  out  to  testify  and  warn  the  people,  and 
L.  becometh  every  man  who  hath  been  warned,  to  warn  his  neighbor"  (Doc. 
and  Cov.  88:81). 


VIII— Value  of  Child  Life. 

Purity  of  the  Race. — There  is  nothing  in  the  crumbling  processes  of  our 
modern  civilization  more  menacing  to  our  future  welfare  and  happiness  than 
the  curtailment  of  child  life.  Thoughtful  men  and  women  begin  already  te 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  19 

appreciate  the  dangers  which  beset  us  from  this  source.  They  are  making 
every  effort  to  conserve  human  life,  bnt  at  best  they  are  dealing  only  with 
remedies,  and  are  not  grappling  with  the  dangers  at  the  seat  of  this  world- 
wide disease.  Public  men  are  appealing  to  the  men  and  women  of  the  world 
to  spare  the  nations  of  Christendom  the  calamity  of  self-extinction.  Of  all 
questions  which  beset  mankind  today,  there  is  not  one  whose  ramifications 
go  into  every  phase  of  life  like  that  of  child-birth.  Neither  is  it  a  matter 
of  will,  for  we  are  solemnly  wanted  that  evil  conditions  have  so  crept  into 
the  lives  of  our  youth  that  the  absence  of  child  life  cannot  be  avoided. 

The  Revelation  of  Evils — The  determination  which  a  very  large  class 
of  the  people  of  the  world  have  manifested  against  any  farther  increase  of 
child  life  reveals  a  multitude  of  evils  that  are  a  danger  to  the  morals  of  the 
world.  There  is  now  going  on  throughout  the  United  States  a  campaign 
among  women  against  the  so-called  "double  standard,"  by  which  is  meant 
that  men  may  be  forgiven  the  excesses  of  youth,  that  their  sins  may  be 
winked  at,  and  that  they  may  be  permitted  to  assume  the  solemn  duties  of 
husband,  and  it  may  be,  of  father.  When  the  women  were  charged  with 
wilful  barrenness,  they  were  quick  to  retort,  in  perhaps  most  instances,  that 
the  charge  was  false,  and  refused  to  permit  the  accusation  to  be  laid  at 
their  door.  They  began  then  a  campaign  in  the  legislatures  of  the  different 
states  of  the  Union  to  compel  men,  through  doctors'  certificates,  to  estab- 
lish their  fitness  for  married  life.  While  they  have  had  some  measure  of 
success,  as  a  rule  their  campaign  has  not  been  successful. 

A  Dangerous  Situation. — If  it  be  true,  as  is  frequently  charged  by  med- 
ical science  through  certain  publications,  that  the  question  of  parentage  with 
a  large  percentage  of  our  men  is  not  at  all  a  question  of  willingness,  bnt  one 
of  ability:  when  the  young  manhood  of  our  nation  reaches  such  a  state  of 
degradation,  the  revelation  is  most  appalling,  and  the  hope  of  the  future 
posterity  is  indeed  small.  Again,  it  is  declared  that  in  a  large  number  of 
instances  the  danger  of  birth  is  more  alarming  than  its  absence,  because 
so  many  children  are  born  into  the  world  with  physical  inheritances  that 
wholly  unfit  them  for  the  responsibilities  of  life.  It  is  the  sacred  right  of 
children  to  be  born  physically,  mentally,  and  morally  right.  If  the  vices  of 
the  fathers  entail  upon  our  children  the  dangers  and  sufferings  of  sin,  every 
effort  should  be  made  to  eradicate  them.  The  double  standard  is  said  to 
be  the  fixed  rule  in  life,  but  it  is  not  true  among  Latter-day  Saints.  Upon 
men  there  is  put  the  same  accountability  as  that  which  rests  upon  women. 
If,  indeed,  there  is  a  difference,  it  stands  against  the  man,  whose  mission  in 
life  is  to  protect  by  every  means  the  daughters  of  Eve. 

National  Calamities. — Already  France  has  reached  a  stage  where  the 
death  rate  is  in  excess  of  the  birth  rate.  In  Germany  publicists  are  sound- 
ing a  note  of  warning  against  conditions  which  threaten  there  to  become  as 
menacing  as  they  are  in  France.  The  present  war  is  much  more  likely  to 
increase  this  menace  to  the  race  than  it  is  to  improve  it.  Even  though  fu- 
ture wars  may  not  be  immediate,  and  the  peace  of  the  world  may  not  be 
threatened  for  generations,  child-bearing  will  be  refused  on  the  ground 
that  parents  do  not  care  to  produce  "fodder  for  the  cannon"  of  those  who 
are  ambitious  for  war.  There  have  been  serious  economic  objections  against 
child-life,  and  now  new  objections  will  be  furnished  by  the  destruction  of 
the  youth,  the  strongest  and  best  in  the  manhood  of  nations. 

Value  of  Children.— What  is  likely  to  be  the  result  of  this  menace  to 
our  national  life?  In  the  first  place,  the  birth  of  a  million  children  has  in 
it  more  potential  value  than  all  the  billions  of  dollars  that  come  from  our 
fields,  and  we  might  include  in  that  all  the  wealth  that  comes  in  a  single 
year  from  our  mines.  We  have  never  fully  realized  the  value  of  an  increas- 
ing population.  If  our  population  begins  rapidly  to  decrease,  our  workshops 
will  be  empty,  our  railroads  will  be  without  patronage.  The  doors  of  our 
factories  will  be  closed;  and  what  will  be  more  trouble,  there  will  be  a  stag- 
nant condition  of  life  dial  forebodes  decay  and  destruction.  A  decreasing 
population  is  a  sure  sign  of  increasing  decay.  The  spirit  of  abandonment 
is  the  spirit  o.'  defeat.  Men  lose  their  courage,  women  their  fortitude, 


20  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

and  they  settle  down  in  a  spirit  of  the  fatalist,  whose  demoralizing  life  is 
reflected  too  much  among  Asiatics,  in  whom  there  is  no  ambition  to  advance- 
ment. Fruthermore,  by  the  abandonment  of  children,  our  lives  are  cut  in 
two,  so  far  as  our  ambitions  and  struggles  to  promote  ourselves  in  life  go. 
Men  forty-five  and  fifty  are  in  the  zenith  of  their  power.  At  that  age  they 
arj  able  to  take  a  survey  of  practically  all  that  they  have  to  hope  for  in 
life.  At  that  age  their  ambition  comes  generally  to  a  standstill.  If  there 
are  no  children  to  whom  their  ambitions  may  be  transferred,  they  are  with- 
out hope. 

Australia  allows  by  law  $25.00  to  the  mother  of  every  child  born  to  her 
without  making  inquiry  into  its  parental  origin.  Other  countries  make  pro- 
visions for  the  expenses  of  child-birth  because  they  have  learned  the  value 
of  child  life.  The  United  States  has  in  the  past  been  supplied  with  popu- 
lation largely  by  immigration;  and  yet  different  states  make  provisions  for 
the  expenses  of  childhood. 

Ruskin  beautifully  declares  that  "There  is  no  wealth  but  life — life,  in- 
cluding all  its  powers  of  love,  of  joy,  and  of  admiration.  That  country  is 
richest  which  nourishes  the  greatest  number  of  noble  and  happy  human  be- 
ings; that  man  is  richest,  who,  having  perfected  the  functions  of  h's  own 
life  to  the  utmost,  has  also  the  widest  helpful  influences,  both  personal  and 
by  means  of  his  possessions,  over  the  lives  of  others."  The  wealth  that  comes 
from  the  veins  of  human  life  is  purple.  It  is  not  the  yellow  of  gold,  a  dross 
in  comparison. 

After  the  War,  that  ever-recurring  phrase,  human  life  will  be  more  val- 
uable than  ever.  How  little  value  the  nations  have  put  upon  childbirth ! 
It  is  the  old  story  of  a  buried  talent,  which  the  calamities  of  war  is  taking 
away  from  us.  It  is  the  taking  away  of  even  that  which  we  have.  Are  the 
Latter-day  Saints  becoming  tinctured  with  the  fatal  philosophy  that  they 
cannot  afford  life?  Do  they  argue  the  "higher  cost"?  If  so,  they,  too,  may 
experience  the  "taking  away."  Whatever  is  a  talent  we  ought  not  to  bury; 
but  the  world  is  the  grave-yard  of  buried  talents.  "But,"  it  is  asked,  "what 
is  the  remedy  for  the  "higher  cost?"  Faith.  If  we  lose  faith  in  God  we  shall 
also  lose  faith  in  his  creations  and  in  his  law.  The  pressure,  we  say,  is 
awful,  but  all  life  is  born  and  continues  under  pressure.  We  are  not  safe 
without  pressure;  it  is  the  law  of  our  being.  Escape  from  it  does  not  bring 
relief.  The  trouble  is  not  that  God  has  placed  upon  us  a  load  too  heavy  to 
bear,  but  we  have  wasted  the  strength  that  would  make  the  burden  light. 
Child-bearing  makes  a  woman  strong,  wilful  barrenness  makes  ber  weak.  The 
latter  weakens  her  will  and  robs  her  of  her  faith.  The  man  who  bears  an 
empty  case  carries  an  emptv  life.  "The  strenuous  life"  makes  men  and 
women  strong  in  purpose  and  valiant  for  the  right.  The  objector  further 
reasons  that  a  fact  is  a  fact,  that  "it  is  a  condition,  not  a  theory  which  con- 
fronts us."  But  facts  are  miserable  things  if  borne  of  false  theories.  Con- 
ditions fade  in  the  light  of  faith  and  hope.  We  do  not  see  our  way  through 
life,  not  even  through  a  da^  of  twenty-four  hours,  for  part  of  it  is  given 
to  darkness.  The  birth  of  children  brings  faith  to  the  home.  They  come 
from  a  divine  presence,  and  bring  with  them  a  love  for  things  divine. 
"Blessed  is  he  who  hath  his  quiver  full." 

Revelation. — "Now,  I  the  Lord,  am  not  well  pleased  with  the  inhabit- 
ants cf  Zion,  for  there  are  idlers  among  them;  and  their  children  are  grow- 
ing up  in  wickedness;  they  also  seek  not  the  riches  of  eternity,  but  their 
eyes  are  full  of  greediness"  (Doc.  and  Cov.  68:31). 


IX — Co-operation 

Counsels  of  Brigham  Young. — Within  the  memory  of  many  now  living, 
it  may  be  recalled  that  a  strenuous  effort  was  made  in  Utah  to  induce  the 
people  to  conduct  their  business  by  co-operative  methods.  The  writer 
once  heard  Brigham  Young  say  to  the  people  of  Provo  that  the  day  would 
come  when  they  would  discover  the  fallacy  of  all  their  arguments  in  favor 
of  competition,  when  the  competitive  methods  about  which  people  talked 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  21 

so  much  would  be  a  burden  to  them.  He  declared  that  one  distributive 
business  of  any  kind  was  enough  for  the  community;  that  the  more  the 
stores,  the  higher  the  prices  would  be;  and  that  it  was  in  the  interest  of  the 
people  to  have  as  many  as  possible  in  some  productive  labor.  His  efforts 
were  thwarted  in  time,  partly  by  the  insistence  of  large  numbers  who  were 
d  termined  to  become  merchants,  and  men  of  business  in  other  pursuits, 
and  partly  by  the  miscarriage  of  many  co-operative  institutions.  There 
was  a  clamor  for  the  correction  of  these  miscarriages  in  co-operation  by 
competitive  methods,  rather  than  by  the  application  of  improved  methods. 
In  time  small  stores  sprang  up  in  all  the  communities.  A  half  dozen  or 
more  stores  took  up  the  work  of  distribution  where  one  might  have 
sufficed.  All  these  systems  of  business  had  to  exist.  For  a  time,  no  doubt, 
there  was  strenuous  competition;  but  eventually,  merchants  found  it  more 
profitable  to  put  their  heavy  burden  upon  the  community  at  large  than  to 
carry  it  themselves.  If  they  were  to  exist,  they  must  come  to  some  sort  of 
understanding.  Gradually  they  formed  business  men's  associations,  where 
they  regulated  prices.  Whenever  a  new  man  entered  their  ranks,  there  was 
but  one  or  two  courses  to  pursue.  Either  one  of  them  must  drop  out,  or 
prices  must  be  raised  to  support  them  all.  In  bad  times  there  were  fail- 
ures, but  to  protect  themselves  against  failure  it  was  necessary  to  raise  prices 
again. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  constantly  rising  prices  were  due  in  part 
to  the  growing  and  necessary  cost  of  distribution. 

Today  there  is  a  widespread  discontent  against  the  rising  costs  of 
living,  and  a  considerable  amount  of  suffering  as  a  consequence.  For  a 
time  the  burden  of  these  excessive  costs  fell  upon  the  producer.  Goods 
had  to  be  bought  as  cheaply  as  possible,  and  they  were  cheap  because 
production  was  large,  in  consequence  of  a  considerable  preponderance  of 
farmers  and  manufacturers.  Cheap  production  meant  cheap  labor,  and 
men  soon  found  that  they  could  earn  more  in  the  ranks  of  those  who  dis- 
tributed than  in  those  of  the  producer.  Labor  unions  began  to  force  prices 
of  labor  up  in  manufacturing  centers,  but  there  were  no  unions  among 
farmers.  That  meant  that  the  higher  prices  for  labor  in  the  cities  took  men 
away  from  the  farms.  Farm  products  and  live  stock  suffered.  Wheat 
growing  on  a  commercial  scale  began  in  later  years  to  contract,  as  the 
prices  for  labor  on  the  farm  made  large  wheat  farms  unprofitable.  Farmers 
soon  began  to  reason  that  a  general  movement  to  raise  less  was  more 
profitable,  for  the  less  raised,  the  higher  the  prices.  There  began  an  almost 
universal  cry  for  mixed  farming.  That  meant  stockraising  and  dairying; 
it  also  meant  less  wheat.  The  higher  cost  of  wheat  is  not  merely  a  result 
of  the  war.  Nor  is  the  recent  decline  in  amount  of  wheat  raised  due  en- 
tirely to  adverse  conditions,  such  as  draught  and  wheat  insects. 

Commercial  System. — Speculators  have  combined  to  force  down  prices 
at  harvest  time  and  to  raise  them  when  the  wheat  was  bought  up.  Loans 
were  all  on  short-time  notes  on  which  bankers  could  enforce  payment. 
**±'ay  up,"  they  said;  "we  will  renew  the  loan."  I  have  known  stock  buyers 
to  co  to  a  bank  and  make  arrangements  with  the  manager  to  buy  a  certain 
man's  livestock.  What  the  manager  was  to  get  out  of  the  transaction  could, 
of  course,  not  be  known.  He  telephoned  the  stockman  that  his  note  was 
due  and  must  be  paid.  "But  I  have  not  yet  sold,  I  have  plenty  of  feed  to 
keep  my  stock  over  for  months;  and  besides,  prices  are  down  just  now," 
came  the  reply  from  the  stockman.  The  manager  informed  him  that  there 
was  a  buyer  in  town,  and  that  he  must  sell.  There  was  no  alternative,  and 
the  buyer  secured  a  cheap  bunch  of  stock.  Such  methods,  of  course,  in 
time  resulted  in  loss  of  business  to  the  bank  by  a  restriction  of  business, 
or  by  the  transfer  of  it  to  another  bank,  which  did  not  make  conditions 
much  better.  By  combination  they  keep  a  uniform  rate  of  interest  and 
competition  among  them  is  practically  unknown.  The  live  stock  was 
cheaper,  but  the  packers'  products  remained  the  same. 

Illustrations. — Alberta  is  one  of  the  best  barley  countries  in  the  world. 
From  this  feed,  millions  of  hogs  could  be  fattened  and  yet  today  there  are 


22  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

comparatively  few  hogs  fattened  for  market  in  the  Province.  In  1914  the 
farmers  were  under  full  swing  in  the  production  of  hogs.  It  was  a  dry 
year  and  feed  was  high,  but  hundreds  of  thousands  of  hogs  were  fitted  for 
market.  When  they  are  ready  they  must  be  sold,  as  it  would  be  a  loss 
to  hold  them  longer.  The  packers  saw  their  opportunity  to  get  them  "dirt" 
cheap.  They  dropped  prices  to  four  cents  a  pound.  That  was  an  enormous 
loss  to  farmers,  but  they  had  to  sell.  They  were  disgusted,  but  they  "took 
their  medicine"  and  unloaded,  breeding-stock  and  all.  The  packers  sent  an 
agent  out  to  beg  the  farmers  not  to  sell  their  brood  sows,  but  to  no  purpose. 
They  were  done  with  a  business  whose  control  was  in  the  hands  of  a  few 
men  who  might  ruin  the  fanners  whenever  they  saw  fit.  The  business  was 
practically  killed.  It  will  be  slow  to  revive.  Did  the  packers  bring  down 
their  products?  Not  a  cent.  Their  fortunes  are  mounting  into  the  millions. 
Yet  their  agents  pull  long  and  painful  faces  when  they  tell  of  the  great 
chances  they  are  taking,  and  how  their  company  "lost  last  year."  The 
shrinkage  in  production  is  bringing  prices  to  a  higher  level,  and  the  con- 
sumer must  suffer  with  the  producer. 

Co-operation. — What's  the  remedy?  That's  a  question.  It  is  certainly 
not  competition.  Is  it  co-operation?  Perhaps  so,  but  it  will  be  an  enforced 
co-operation  by  the  Province  regulating  the  business  through  provincial  or 
nunicipal  agencies.  The  important  co-operation  may  be  between  the  pro- 
ducer and  consumer  through  the  agencies  of  the  state.  Market  slumps  in 
the  products  of  the  farm  and  ranch  are  the  bane  of  life  in  these  industries. 
A  monopoly  in  them  is  impossible,  as  in  certain  manufacturing  products, 
where  combination  is  comparatively  easy.  As  a  war  measure,  price-fixing 
has  been  established  in  the  interests  of  the  producer  and  consumer.  The 
principle  will  not  likely  end  with  the  war.  Conditions  have  greatly  changed 
within  the  past  few  years,  and  what  has  been  found  to  be  in  the  interest 
of  the  people,  the  people  will  insist  shall  continue. 

Denmark  is  the  most  highly  organized  country  in  the  world  in  her 
agricultural  and  live  stock  industries.  Co-operative  methods  there  are 
fostered  and  practiced  by  the  government.  The  fixation  of  prices  is  there 
considered  absolutely  necessary  to  the  country's  success.  A  few  years  ago 
the  Hollanders  controlled  largely  the  English  market  in  butter  and  cheese. 
They  were  driven  from  that  market  by  the  Danes,  whose  co-operative  method 
of  buying  and  selling  made  it  impossible  for  Hollanders  longer  to  hold 
what  they  had  gained.  The  Danes  so  standardized  their  products  through 
government  regulation  that  the  chances  of  the  Hollanders'  winning  back 
what  they  Tiad  lost  is  quite  unlikely.  They  naturally  turned  to  Germany 
for  a  new  market.  To  keep  up  a  maximum  of  production,  it  was  necessary 
to  stabilize  prices.  A  careful  study  of  market  conditions  is  made,  and  the 
price  fixed  by  law.  Any  one  within  the  country  who  does  not  sell  at  the 
established  prices  is  fined  heavily. 

Dangers. — When  the  pinch  is  felt  in  the  United  States,  as  it  is  at  present 
felt  in  some  European  countries,  our  government  will  intervene  by  law  to 
stabilize  certain  industries  which  need  fixed  prices,  in  the  interest  of  the 
consumer.  Farmers  and  ranchers  are  becoming  more  independent,  and  will 
doubtless  hold  their  products  for  a  considerable  length  of  time  to  secure 
what  they  consider  a  fair  remuneration.  They  must  demand  more  if  they 
are  to  meet  the  higher  cost  of  maintaining  expenses  on  the  farm  and  ranch. 
The  United  States  has  reached  a  place  where  it  will  require  all  the  wheat 
raised  in  normal  years  to  feed  its  own  population.  The  loss  of  population 
to  Europe  will  undoubtedly  lessen  consumption  there,  but  laborers  will 
be  fewer  and  there  will  be  also  an  increased  demand  for  labor  to  rehabilitate 
all  the  countries  of  Europe  after  the  war.  Foreign  trade  will  be  sought  in 
order  to  win  back  the  losses  in  gold.  Manufacture  will  increase  rapidly 
and  consume  more  labor.  New  complications  will  arise,  whose  adjustment 
cannot  easily  be  foreseen.  The  intervention  of  government  in  all  industrial 
life  will  be  very  different  from  what  it  has  ever  been,  and  a  multitude  of 
problems  will  arise  to  tax  the  new  industrial  age.  Co-operation  will  come 
more  and  more  into  practice,  and  with  the  new  changes  there  will  come  a 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  23 

great  danger  to  the  so-called  middle  classes,  who  are  likely  to  be  scattered 
into  various  industrial  pursuits. 

After  all,  it  is  a  question  of  brotherhood.  That  is  fundamental  in 
b  siness  life  as  it  is  in  religious  life.  Co-operation  fosters  brotherhood, 
competition  endangers  it.  Every  phase  of  life  brings  us  face  to  face  with 
the  very  thing  the  world  needs  most — religion. 

Revelation. — "It  is  wisdom  in  me;  therefore,  a  commandment  I  give 
unto  you,  that  ye  organize  yourselves  and  appoint  every  man  his  steward* 
ship. 

"That  every  man  may  give  an  account  unto  me  of  his  stewardship  which 
is  appointed  unto  him; 

"Therefore  if  a  man  take  of  the  abundance  which  I  have  made,  and 
impart  not  his  portion,  according  to  the  law  of  my  gospel,  unto  the  poor 
and  the  needy,  he  shall,  with  the  wicked,  lift  up  his  eyes  in  hell,  being  in 
torment"  (Doc.  and  Cov.  104:11,12,18). 


X — Extravagance 

Luxury  Rampant. — There  is  serious  danger  ahead,  greater  than  that 
which  the  world  is  now  confronting,  from  the  extravagance  of  war, — for  of 
all  forms  of  extravagance,  war  is  the  worst.  Nations  are  wasting  life  by  the 
millions  and  property  by  the  billions.  Minor  extravagances  lead  to  major 
ones.  We  may  not  think  of  war  as  a  result  of  extravagance,  but  indirectly 
it  is.  Waste  and  greed  are  twin  brothers.  To  spend  becomes  a  passion. 
People  love  to  buy,  not  always  because  they  are  in  need,  but  because  shop- 
ping is  a  pleasant  pastime.  Of  course,  bills  must  be  paid,  money  must  be 
had,  honorably  if  possible,  but  it  must  be  had. 

Are  we  living  beyond  our  means?  Are  we  borrowing  to  support  luxury 
and  waste?  Do  we  eat  too  much?  Do  we  eat  food  that  is  costly  when 
cheaper  and  simpler  food  would  do  as  well,  perhaps  better?  It  is  tome- 
times  said  that  France  could  live  on  what  the  United  States  throws  away. 
Dr.  Rurtherford,  one  of  the  most  eminent  authorities  on  food  in  the  world, 
recently  said  at  a  meeting  in  Calgary,  as  reported  in  the  Herald  of  that  city, 
September  20,  1917: 

"No  one  would  know  Canada  was  at  war,  except  for  the  wounded 
soldiers  on  the  streets.  When  one  sees  extravagance  and  waste  con- 
stantly going  on;  buying  of  motor  cars  and  silly  raiment;  oceans  of 
gasoline  used  up,  one  begins  to  wonder  what  kind  of  a  people  we  are, 
after  all.  We  will  have  to  help  the  mother  country.  It  seems  about 
time  we  woke  up  and  took  a  tighter  hold  of  our  belts. 

"Food  has  been  shut  off  from  Russia,  Roumania  and  Bulgaria, 
while  Australia  and  India  are  too  far  away  to  be  of  much  use.  The 
requirements  of  the  allies  is  450,000,000  bushels,  while  the  amount 
available  for  export  is  30,000,000. 

"There  is  a  decrease  in  meat  producing  in  the  world.  There  are 
28,080,000  less  cattle  in  the  countries  of  the  allies  since  the  war  began 
and  54,050,000  less  sheep  and  32,050,000  fewer  number  of  hogs.  Dur- 
ing the  year  ending  June  30,  1916,  the  United  States  exported  1,339,- 
193,000  pounds  of  meat,  as  compared  with  the  average  amount  before 
the  war  of  493,848,000  pounds. 

"There  are  two  phases,  one  the  conservation  of  food,  and  the  other 
the  elimination  of  food.  The  waste  of  food  in  the  garbage  pails  and  so 
on  in  the  United  States  is  estimated  by  their  food  controller  to  be 
700.000.000  pounds,  while  the  waste  of  good  food  in  Canada,  according 
to  Food  Controller  Hanna,  is  50,000,000  pounds.  We  must  take  a  dif- 
ferent course  from  that  which  we  have  followed  in  the  past.  We  must 
do  something  to  make  a  change  of  heart  in  the  people  of  Canada.  We 
can  regulate  public  eating  houses,  but  we  cannot  go  into  the  kitchens 
of  private  people,  and  they  must  be  appealed  to  in  the  right  way." 

The  garbage  pail  is,  after  all,  a  small  item  in  our  waste  when  com- 
pared with  a  mass  of  luxuries  that  people  could  live  easily  without.  We 


24  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

invent  more  extravagances  than  we  do  useful  machinery.  It  is  often 
said  that  making  business  out  of  pleasure  is  more  profitable  than  that 
which  comes  from  the  necessities  of  life. 

Brother's  Keeper. — "We  don't  care;  it  is  our  money,  and  we  shall 
spend  it  as  we  like."  Nothing  is  more  sinister  in  this  age  than  the 
example  of  those  who  have  wholly  divorced  themselves  from  all  thought  of 
duty  and  helpfulness  to  others.  The  most  sinful  phase  of  waste  is  that  it 
puts  a  burden  upon  others.  We  are  all  creatures  of  imitation,  and  the  imi- 
tation that  most  influences  us  is  toward  that  which  leads  to  extravagance. 
Every  man  and  woman  is  under  a  responsibility  for  the  burden  he  puts  upon 
others  by  setting  a  pace  in  extravagance  which  they  cannot  follow.  "Can  I 
afford  it?"  is  perhaps  the  last  thing  a  man  should  ask  himself.  "Should  I 
afford  it?"  makes  him  his  brother's  keeper.  Too  many  of  the  rich  not  only 
affo-d  it,  but  they  flaunt  it.  To  them  there  is  a  way  of  reckoning  if  they 
escape  the  day.  Into  their  children's  lives  they  instil  a  false  and  poisonous 
atmosphere.  Often  they  ruin  their  own  health  and  that  of  those  whom 
they  should  protect.  Extravgaance  is  one  of  the  cursing  sins  of  the  age.  It 
breeds  envy,  creates  jealousy,  leads  to  poverty  and  destroys  the  happiness 
of  millions.  Our  public  buildings  are  loaded  with  mortgages,  our  banks  are 
full  of  notes.  Yet  we  go  on  as  if  there  were  no  days  set  apart  for  liquidation. 

Fashions. — No  nation's  bill  for  fashions  has  ever  been  presented.  It 
would  stagger  the  imagination.  Beneath  this  load  of  extravagance  millions 
of  backs  are  bending.  "What  of  it?  One  may  as  well  be  out  of  the  world 
as  out  of  fashion."  Very  well,  it  is  taking  millions  out  of  the  world  and 
wjunding  millions  more.  It  is  the  pride  which  comes  before  the  fall.  The 
papers  are  full  of  it.  Here  is  an  item  from  the  Chicago  Tribune  of  Sep- 
tember 2,  1917: 

Where  the  eggs  go — 200,000,000  a  year  are  used  by  barbers  and 
50,000,000  by  women  hair-dressers.  Banish  the  egg  shampoo  for  the 
period  of  the  war,  and  save  250,000,000  eggs  a  year.  There  are  300,000 
barbers  in  America.  They  will  average  more  than  two  eggs  a  day." 

Could  something  else  be  used?  Nothing  will  do  that  is  not  extravagant. 
The  costly  things  of  life  are  craved  simply  because  they  are  costly. 

Common  observation,  to  say  nothing  of  experience,  will  teach  us  the 
evils  of  waste.  In  the  home  they  may  be  in  little  things.  What  makes  the 
situation  worse  is  that  extravagance  becomes  a  habit  which  in  turn  becomes 
an  inheritance.  Will  there  ever  be  an  accounting?  What  if  famine  comes? 
How  ill  fit  we  shall  be  for  emergencies  of  individual  and  national  reverses! 
"Oh,  well,  the  world  has  always  been  so,"  and  the  world  has  also  had  its 
days  of  reckoning.  Have  we  lost  our  vision?  Can  we  not  see  the  impend- 
ing dangers?  We  are  standing  with  our  faces  to  the  wall.  There  are  dan- 
gers, but  as  we  see  them  they  look  a  long  way  off.  Many  would  be  as  blind 
if  they  were  near.  A  London  correspondent  writes: 

"I  find  the  streets  full  of  cheery  faces,  the  theatre  crowded  with 
pleasure  seekers,  and  everywhere  the  accents  of  an  uplifting  hope." 

"Uplifting  hope!"  For  what,  for  whom?  "May  as  well  be  cheerful 
and  hopeful  as  sad."  We  need  not  be  either,  but  ought  to  be  sober.  Human 
suffering  is  past  expression,  human  lives  are  going  out  by  millions,  and 
sorrow  reddens  the  world  as  never  before.  It  is  all  so  "hopefully  uplifting." 
Men  are  at  war  to  redeem  the  world  from  a  ruthless  foe.  The  gay  and  ex- 
travagant care  just  about  as  much  for  the  work  of  redemption  on  the  battle- 
field as  the  masses  in  Jerusalem  cared  for  the  redemption  of  Christ. 

Penalties. — All  excesses  pay  their  penalties.  The  law  of  compensation 
makes  it  so.  Extravagance  does  not  simply  drift.  It  is  always  in  a  hurry — 
its  friction  wears  life  away  into  a  premature  grave.  The  later  life  which 
follows  one  of  gaiety  and  splendor  is  discolored  by  the  disappointment  which 
vanity  always  brings.  Is  there  no  hope  for  a  simple  and  sober  ending?  It 
is  the  foliage  of  life  which  most  delights  us,  even  though  the  foliage  leaves 
no  place  for  the  fruit  to  grow. 

Individual  extravagance  is  but  one  phase  of  an  insistent  evil.  In  public 
life  there  is  a  similar  tendency  to  waste.  Senator  Aldrich,  a  distinguished 
political  economist  is  declared  to  have  stated  that  approximately  one-half  of 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  25 

the  public  money  appropriated  by  Congress  was  extravagantly  wasted.  State 
legislatures,  as  well  as  Congress,  make  appropriations  that  a  frugal  system  of 
administration  in  federal  and  state  institutions  do  not  really  require.  Log- 
rolling is  the  favorite  method  in  most  legislative  bodies.  Local  appropria- 
.ns  are  the  measure  of  local  patriotism.  They  are  too  often  beyond  legiti- 
mate needs.  No  private  business  could  be  run  successfully  by  such  wasteful 
methods  as  characterize  our  legislation.  The  "pork  barrel"  of  Congressional 
fame  has  long  been  a  federal  scandal.  Organized  revolts  against  it  are  inef- 
fectual. Our  natural  resources  have  been  squandered  shamefully.  We  are 
living  for  today  with  no  thought  of  tomorrow.  Talk  of  famine  and  suffering 
awaken  little  response  in  our  national  and  individual  lives.  Wrapped  in 
s  If-content,  we  go  our  way,  indifferent  to  all  danger. 

Nor  is  the  extravagance  in  our  material  lives  our  only  vice.  We  are 
wasteful  of  our  physical  energies.  Men  of  simple  and  frugal  lives  do  not 
hesitate  to  work  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  strength  of  their  bodies.  They 
are  guilty  of  excessively  long  hours.  They  are  ambitious  to  achieve  certain 
aims  which  they  reach  only  at  the  waste  of  physical  and  mental  energy. 
The  spirit  of  extravagance  is  manifest  in  all  world  activities.  It  means  a 
break-down  in  our  universal  system  of  waste.  Conservation  is  the  catch- 
word of  the  age,  but  it  is  more  than  a  catch-word.  We  are  all  involved  in  an 
excessive  struggle  for  accomplishments. 

Thoughts  and  Feelings. — Extravagances  in  material  things  creates  extrav- 
agance in  thought  and  feeling.  Our  mental  concepts  become  exaggerated, 
and  the  vision  of  life  perverted.  Our  ideas  of  the  world  are  overdrawn. 
We  cease  to  see  things  as  they  are,  and  consequently  are  led  into  false 
methods  of  reasoning.  There  is  a  proper  enjoyment  of  the  riches  of  the 
world,  and  there  is  a  hope  that  comes  within  realization  when  moderation 
is  practiced.  The  world  needs,  in  these  fateful  hours,  a  return  to  conserva- 
tive living.  Extremes  follow  one  another.  When  we  pass  beyond  the  limits 
of  our  powers,  the  return  to  normal  conditions  produces  disappointment  and 
suffering.  It  is  in  order  to  bring  the  "old  fogy"  into  fashion  again,  the 
man  who  fears  the  dangers  of  extremes  would  keep  within  the  bounds  of 
his  ability  to  recover  himself.  Individual  extravagance  carries  with  it  the 
burden  of  debt  and  leads  to  bankrcptcy.  It  creates  national  and  state  extrav- 
agance, that  sometimes  causes  them  to  repudiate  their  obligations.  The 
spirit  of  moderation,  on  the  other  hand,  enables  men  in  extreme  emergencies 
to  recover  themselves.  It  carries  with  it  the  blessings  of  its  own  rward.  Fur- 
thermore, waste  begets  heedlessness  and  makes  men  indifferent  to  correction 
or  warning.  Witness  today  the  signal  which  the  leading  and  thoughtful  men 
of  the  nation  are  holding  aloft  to  the  people.  They  do  not  heed  them; 
they  are  rushing  headlong  into  a  world  of  troubles  that  might  be  avoided 
were  they  not  intoxicated  by  the  spirit  of  excess.  They  will  not  know  the 
truth,  until  the  bitter  realization  of  it  brings  home  to  them  the  partial,  if 
not  the  full  penally  of  their  folly.  For  years  the  Saints  have  been  warned. 
Even  before  the  war,  coming  calamities  were  foreseen,  and  the  people  were 
admonished  to  "set  their  houses  in  order"  against  the  day  of  God's  judg- 
ments. 

Revelation. — "For  it  is  expedient  that  I,  the  Lord,  should  make  every 
man  accountable,  as  stewards  over  earthly  blessings,  which  I  have  made  and 
proposed  for  my  creatures"  (Doc.  and  Cov.  104:13). 


XI — Inequalities  a  Besetting  Sin  of  Present  Day  Life 
Marvelous  and  miltiplied  opportunities  for  the  acquisition  of  wealth 
give  rise  to  social  differences  which  today  threaten  the  stability  of  every 
so-called  civilized  nation  of  the  world.  Inequalities  create  envy,  envy  be- 
gets hatred,  and  hatred  entails  in  its  pathway  the  spirit  of  destruction.  Men 
do  not  always,  in  the  superior  advantages  which  they  enjoy,  exercise  a  wise 
stewardship.  If  those  who  enjoy  superior  advantages  of  wealth  would  so 
use  their  property  as  to  benefit  others  and  give  others  an  opportunity  like- 
wise to  increase  their  holdings,  the  difference  in  wealth  would  not  be  so 
dangerous,  so  destructive.  But  there  has  always  been  a  strong  tendency  in 
man  towards  vanity  and  false  pride  that  seduced  men  into  the  belief  that 


26  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

because  they  were  richer  they  were  likewise  better  than  their  fellow  men. 
Such  vanity  has  given  rise  to  exhibitions  of  frivolity  and  excesses  that  were 
hard  for  the  poorer  classes  to  witness  and  endure. 

There  is  now  going  on  within  the  United  States,  and  indeed  through- 
out the  world,  but  more  particularly  in  the  United  States,  a  propaganda  of 
pride  that  may  have  much  to  do  in  this  country  in  creating  a  revolution, 
if  not  down-right  anarchy.  Our  newspapers,  and  more  particularly  the  Sun- 
day editions,  are  filled  with  social  notes  and  advertisements  which  cater  to 
the  vanity  and  extravagance  of  those  who  enjoy  more  money  than  most  of 
their  fellow  creatures. 

Society  Life. — The  newspapers  are  thus  giving  their  powerful  support 
to  an  increase  of  hatred  on  the  part  of  the  poor  towards  the  rich.  Much  of 
this  advertising  is  harmless.  It  is  of  an  innocent  personal  character  that 
touches  in  a  small  way  the  vanity  of  those  who  enjoy  so-called  "newspaper 
publicity."  Some  of  this  newspaper  notoriety  is  excessively  dangerous  to 
the  peace  of  society  and  the  stability  of  government  institutions.  When 
people  are  poor,  and  perhaps  suffering  from  deprivations  and  want,  they  do 
not  look  with  much  toleration  upon  the  follies  of  the  rich.  Some  time  ago 
a  lady  paraded  in  the  newspapers  of  New  York  the  fact  that  she  had  built 
a  $25,000  house  as  a  home  for  her  favorite  cats.  Society  women  of  wealth 
had  social  gatherings  in  honor  of  some  dog,  and  thus  their  vanity  in  parad- 
ing before  the  public  such  wanton  extravagances  is  giving  rise  to  criticism, 
and  to  class  hatred. 

A  Dog  Cemetery. — The  New  York  Times  of  August  19th  gives  a  photo- 
graphic and  written  review  of  a  dog  cemetery  in  Westchester  county,  in 
which  there  are  more  than  two  thousand  graves.  The  writer  says  of  this 
cemetery  that  "on  a  pleasant  summer  day  there  were  not  fewer  than  100 
visitors,  and  that  as  many  as  fifteen  automobiles  would  be  at  the  entrance 
at  a  time.  There  has  been  no  saving  of  expense  in  the  monuments  placed 
over  some  of  the  graves;  several  have  cost  $2,500;  and  including  the  price 
paid  for  the  plot  and  other  expenses,  the  total  individual  expense  is  fre- 
quently as  much  as  $3,000  and  $4,000.  Arrangements  were  recently  made 
for  a  mausoleum  ten  feet  square  to  be  erected,  at  a  cost  of  $10,000.  The 
lowest  priced  dog  is  $10,  the  highest  $250." 

The  advertisement  of  such  wasteful  extravagances  at  a  time  when  this 
country  is  at  war,  and  when  thousands  and  thousands  of  its  sons  may  per- 
haps be  thrown  into  great  excavations  and  simply  covered  with  dirt,  is  likely 
to  give  rise  to  feelings  of  bitterness. 

Social  Functions  and  Dress. — The  modern  world  is  also  given  to  undue 
extravagance  in  the  matter  of  its  social  life,  which  means  excess  in  dress,  in 
flowers,  perfumes,  and  other  wasteful  manifestations  of  wealth.  We  witness 
now  in  Russia  the  overthrow  of  a  dynasty  which  has  brought  upon  itself 
the  hatred  of  the  people  because  of  its  wastefulness  and  consequent  weak- 
ness. The  people  of  that  country  have  insisted  on  knowing  something  of  the 
daily  habits  of  the  Czar  and  Czarina,  and  their  courtiers.  We  are  informed 
that  the  Czarina  spent  $25,000  a  year  in  perfumes. 

A  Poor  Defense. — Those  who  would  justify  these  extravagances  contend 
that  such  numerous  expenditures  give  employment  to  the  men  who  raise 
flowers  and  to  those  whose  labor  contributes  to  the  vanity  of  wealth.  There 
are  things  in  this  world  which  we  call  the  necessaries  of  life;  there  are 
others  which  we  call  luxuries.  People  perhaps  would  not  object  so  much 
to  the  display  of  luxuries  and  vanity  if  they  had  enough  of  the  necessaries 
of  life.  But  when  they  suffer  from  an  actual  want  of  food;  when  they  are 
cold  in  their  homes  and  poorly  clad,  the  exhibition  of  luxuries  whose  ex- 
istence has  no  other  excuse  than  that  of  vanity,  they  grow  discontented,  and 
class  spirit  springs  up,  and  intense  hatreds  result. 

Classification  of  Society. — The  classification  of  society  is  contrary  to 
the  spirit  of  Christ  and  his  teachings.  Social  classification  destroys  the 
brotherhood  of  man  and  when  classification  is  built  upon  influences  in 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  27 

wealth,  it  results  in  social  enmities  that  became  very  bitter.  They  destroy 
the  peace  of  mind  and  the  peace  of  the  world.  There  is  a  spirit  in  all  life; 
there  is  the  spirit  of  the  individual;  there  is  the  spirit  of  the  community; 
and  there  is  the  spirit  of  the  nation.  As  a  result  of  these  differences  we 
have  individual  strife,  we  have  community  quarrels,  and  national  wars. 
What  we  are  witnessing  today  is  in  large  meausure  the  result  of  an  at- 
tempted classification  by  which  one  nation  would  make  itself  superior,  and 
therefore  offensive,  to  all  other  nations.  Vanity  is  not  merely  a  harmless 
sentiment  of  the  human  kind.  Vanity  carries  with  it  an  ambition — not  sim- 
ply an  ambition  to  be  better  than  others,  but  an  ambition  to  domineer  over 
others.  It  creates  an  indifference  to  other  people's  suffering,  and  thus  en- 
mity between  man  and  man  grows. 

The  Corrections. — The  abuses  of  class  distinction  manifest  themselves 
in  the  grossest  injustices  of  man  to  man.  They  become  oppressive  and  hu- 
man life  suffers  very  greatly  from  them.  As  a  rule,  the  process  of  correction 
of  these  wrongs  has  been  by  means  of  wars,  famines,  pestilences,  and  such 
calamities  as  have  reduced  the  world  to  a  common  physical  equality.  There 
is,  however,  a  means  of  correction — a  peaceful  means.  Such  peaceful  mean? 
are  found  in  the  teachings  of  the  gospel.  The  religious  institutions  of  the 
Latter-day  Saints  are  all  intended  to  establish  a  feeling  of  brotherhood,  a 
spirit  of  humility  and  a  condition  that  makes  for  brotherly  love  and  uni- 
versal good-will.  If  men  and  women  performed  their  duties  in  the  Church 
as  they  are  prescribed  for  them,  social  classes  would  be  quite  impossible. 
Those  who  flaunt  their  social  life  before  the  public,  who  strive  for  class 
distinction,  as  a  rule  are  not  those  who  are  laboring  faithfully  in  some  of 
the  religious  organizations  of  the  ward  to  which  they  belong.  It  was  no- 
toriously the  work  of  the  ministry  of  Christ  and  his  disciples  to  establish 
social  equality;  for  social  inequality,  if  it  is  not  always  a  cause  of  certain 
immoralities,  is  certainly  in  danger  of  creating  them.  Whatever  poisons  the 
human  mind  in  its  relationship  to  the  children  of  God  begets  conditions  that 
in  time  become  highly  immoral. 

Revelation. — "Nevertheless,  in  your  temporal  things  you  shall  be  equal, 
and  this  not  grudgingly,  otherwise  the  abundance  of  the  manifestations  of 
the  Spirit  shall  be  withheld"  (Doc.  and  Cov.  70:14). 


XII.— The  Future  of  the  Holy  Land 

Conquest  of  the  Holy  Land. — One  of  the  great  changes  which  present 
conditions  are  likely  to  bring  about  is  the  restoration  of  the  Holy  Land. 
The  British  army  is  on  its  border  to  the  South  and  fighting  near  Gaza.  It 
has  been  there  for  some  months  without  making  any  headway.  It  may  per- 
haps be  postponing  a  further  drive  in  order  to  build  a  railway  to  bring  up 
supplies  from  Port  Said  in  Egypt,  and  it  may  be  that  the  abandonment  of  a 
further  drive  in  Macedonia  is  the  result  of  a  plan  to  shift  the  troops  to  the 
Palestine  front.  The  collapse  of  Russia  suspended  all  movements  in  Asia, 
but  there  seems  to  be  a  set  determination  not  to  abandon  the  advance  on 
Palestine.  The  whole  Christian  world  is  looking  with  joyful  anticipation 
to  the  day  when  the  soil  of  that  country  shall  be  free  from  the  blight  of 
Turkish  rule.  To  the  Latter-day  Saints  the  day  of  its  restoration  is  a  divine 
promise.  An  invading  army  would  not  need  to  fight  its  way  up  through  the 
mountains  of  Judea.  It  could  pursue  its  course  along  the  Mediterranean 
litoral  through  the  valley  of  the  Sharon  to  Ml.  Carmel,  and  then  around  the 
Bay  of  Acre,  thus  following  the  route  taken  by  the  Crusaders.  From  the 
Bay  of  Acre  it  could  cross  the  valley  of  the  Esdraelon,  down  into  the  val- 
ley of  the  Jordan,  and  make  a  retreat  of  the  Turks  across  the  Jordan  east- 
ward necessary.  What  would  happen  to  Palestine,  once  it  was  wrested  from 
the  Mohammedans?  To  whom  would  it  belong?  Russian  ambitions  to  take 
it  have  not  disappeared.  No  other  country  has  any  ambition  for  its  pos- 
session. Great  Britain  would  prefer  to  see  it  a  buffer  state  to  Egypt.  The 
efforts  already  made  by  the  Jews  to  reclaim  it  would  make  them  the  logical 


28  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

candidates  for  its  possession.  It  is  said  that  there  are  already  about  100,000 
Jews  in  this  country.  They  have  about  15,000  engaged  in  agricultural  pur- 
suits. The  Zionist  movement  has  been  accumulating  strength  for  a  number 
of  years.  No  extensive  efforts  have  been  made  because  of  the  opposition  of 
the  Turkish  government  to  the  settlement  of  that  people  in  the  land.  The 
great  uncertainty  of  what  the  Turks  would  do  has  made  a  pronounced  move- 
ment unpopular  among  leading  Jews  of  wealth. 

A  Waste  Country. — The  country  lies  in  a  state  of  waste,  and  its  recla- 
mation would  be  the  work  of  pioneers.  It  is  a  desert.  The  great  inflow  of 
wealth  which  would  be  possible  would  lead  to  its  rapid  recovery.  It  is  pri- 
marily a  problem  of  irrigation  which  would  make  the  land  blossom  as  the 
rose.  Today  the  colonists  there  are  raising  green  grapes,  almonds,  and 
oranges.  Grapes  are  grown  in  the  valley  of  the  Sharon  without  irrigation. 
They  are  of  superior  quality  and  have  a  good  market.  A  grape  grower  once 
told  me  that  if  he  could  get  half  a  cent  a  pound  for  his  crop  in  the  field 
he  would  do  well.  The  Sharon  valley  is  cultivated  only  in  spots.  Irrigation 
can  be  carried  on  only  on  a  very  limited  scale.  The  mountains  of  Judea 
have  been  denuded  of  their  forests,  and  the  streams  as  a  consequence  have 
dried  up.  Reforestation  would  be  one  of  the  first  things  undertaken  in  the 
reclamation  of  the  land.  That  would  require  years  in  the  mountains,  but 
the  valleys  under  irrigation  would  respond  rapidly  to  all  vegetable  growth. 

Water  systems  could  be  quickly  established,  and  the  valleys  made 
habitable.  There  are  two  great  valleys  in  Palestine,  the  Jordan  and  the 
Sharon.  The  former  could  be  redeemed  by  an  irrigation  system  from  the 
sea  of  Galilee.  If  the  waters  of  that  sea  should  be  found  too  brackish,  water 
might  be  brought  from  the  Mountains  of  Moab,  east,  of  the  river.  Small 
streams  run  from  them  into  the  Jordan.  There  are  numerous  reservoir 
sites  where  water  might  be  impounded  and  brought  by  pipe  line  across  the 
Jordan  on  to  the  highest  points  of  the  valley.  It  is  an  excessively  hot  dis- 
trict, the  hottest  of  the  whole  land ;  but  not  worse  than  Egypt.  Near  by  are 
the  mountains  of  Judea,  to  which  the  people  might  go  after  the  harvest 
season.  Semi-tropical  fruits  would  grow  there  in  abundance.  It  might  also 
be  made  one  of  the  finest  winter  resorts  in  the  world. 

Opportunities. — It  would  no  doubt  be  the  ambition  of  the  Jews  to  se- 
cure the  great  table  lands  of  the  Moab  where  there  are  fine  pastures  and 
abundant  opportunities  for  growing  grain.  The  Dead  sea  would  doubtless 
become  a  favorable  bathing  resort.  Its  water  are  about  the  same  density 
as  those  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake.  The  Jordan  Valley  might  be  made,  without 
very  great  expense,  a  paradise,  and  no  doubt  there  would  be  opened  from 
New  York  a  direct  steamship  line  for  Jafa,  the  seaport  leading  up  to  Je- 
rusalem. Jerusalem,  as  it  exists  today,  would  have  to  be  completely  razed 
to  the  ground,  except,  of  course,  the  most  sacred  places.  Reservoirs  and 
pumping  systems  could  be  installed  to  supply  the  city  with  water.  The  val- 
ley of  the  Sharon  is  much  larger  than  the  Jordan.  In  the  south  it  is  fully 
forty  or  fifty  miles  wide.  The  first  work  in  redeeming  its  waste  land  would 
be  a  system  of  reservoirs.  There  are  some  artesian  wells.  The  underground 
water  is  near  the  surface,  and  now  pumped  by  means  of  cattle  for  the  orange 
groves.  An  excellent  place  for  electric  plants  would  be  the  Jordan  valley. 
Electricity  might  easily  be  carried  over  the  low  mountains  of  Judea  to  the 
Sharon  valley,  and  water  pumping  systems  established  there  much  as  they 
are  in  parts  of  Arizona. 

The  Present  Worth. — Palestine  is,  if  we  except  Arabia,  the  most  worth- 
less part  of  the  Turkish  empire,  from  an  economic  point  of  view.  Few  peo- 
ple could  exist  there  were  it  not  for  a  place  of  pilgrimage.  In  the  past,  men 
undertaking  to  exploit  foreign  countries,  have  had  their  attention  called  to 
the  wonderful  possibilities  of  the  Holy  Land.  Some  have  invested  there 
without  accomplishing  their  objects.  Its  inducements  are  many,  but  the 
Turks  have  discouraged  all  enterprises  in  the  country.  If  the  wealth  of  the 
Jews  were  poured  into  it,  it  would  undoubtedly  become  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  and  attractive  spots  of  earth.  They  have  a  race  pride  that  would 
induce  them  to  make  the  land  of  their  forefathers  as  near  a  paradise  as  pos- 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  29 

sible.    Already  about  $25,000,000  has  been  expended  by  the  agricultural  pop- 
ulation. 

Present  Conditions. — The  commercial  prospects  of  the  country  will  be 
greatly  enhanced  by  the  construction  of  railroads  connecting  Europe,  Asia, 
and  Africa.  Already  there  has  been  constructed  a  railroad  most  of  the  way 
between  Constantinople  and  Bagdad  by  the  Germans.  It  runs  much  to  the 
north  of  the  Holy  Land.  Out  from  it  branch  lines  have  been  constructed. 
The  one  running  to  Damascus  is  connected  by  the  Haifa  road  in  the  nor- 
thern part  of  Palestine  on  the  Mediterranean.  It  opens  the  rich  valley  of 
the  Easdraelon,  and  connects  it  with  the  uplands  of  Moab.  A  railway  runs 
up  from  Jafa  to  Jerusalem  for  the  accommodation  of  the  pilgrims.  Just 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  war  another  road  was  begun,  going  down  from 
Jerusalem  to  Port  Said,  where  it  would  connect  with  the  line  running  to 
Cairo.  The  English  were  carrying  out  the  plan  of  Rhodes  to  construct  a 
line  from  Cairo  to  Capetown;  but  the  Germans  objected  to  a  right-of-way 
over  their  territory  in  East  Africa.  They  saw  its  strategic  value  to  the 
English,  and  planning  a  war  of  conquest  many  years  ago,  they  determined 
to  balk  the  plans  of  Great  Britain  in  the  construction  of  this  through  road 
which  would  have  connected  also  Jerusalem  with  Capetown. 

The  commerce  of  Palestine  on  the  Mediterranean  has  been  greatly 
handicapped  from  lack  of  suitable  harbors.  There  are  really  only  two,  one 
at  Jafa,  the  other  in  the  Bay  of  Acre  at  Haifa.  At  both,  the  ships  must 
anchor  a  considerable  distance  from  the  shore  and  send  their  merchandise 
and  passengers  by  small  boats.  Large  and  expensive  piers  would  be 
necessary  to  overcome  this  difficulty.  Such  improvements  the  Turks  have 
been  unable  to  make,  and  then  the  inland  traffic  did  not  justify  it. 

Jews  Now  in  Palestine. — The  Jews  are  really  adepts  in  the  use  of  me- 
chanical tools,  and  have  a  monopoly  of  the  carpentry  and  cabinet  work  of 
the  country. 

More  than  four  fifths  of  the  Jews  now  in  Palestine  practically  live  from 
the  alms  sent  them  by  their  richer  brethren  in  foreign  lands.  They  are 
there  from  religious  motives.  Some  have  taken  money  with  them  sufficient 
to  eke  out  an  existence.  They  were  always  in  a  poverty-striken  condition. 
Their  condition  now  must  be  pitiful.  They  are  greatly  given  to  lamenta- 
tions, and  seem  to  have  an  idea  that  Jehovah  will  aid  them  through  the  ex- 
ercise of  their  prayers  and  suffering.  In  the  future  they  would  really  be  a 
bar  to  the  material  development  of  the  country.  Those  who  first  began 
agricultural  life  in  Palestine  were  at  a  disadvantage  because  of  the  habits 
of  life  in  the  countries  from  which  they  came.  They  greatly  exaggerated 
their  ability  to  make  money  out  of  the  Fellaheen  or  native  laborers.  The 
aspect  of  the  early  Jewish  colonies  was  not  a  very  thrifty  one.  So  far  as 
known,  there  is  no  coal  or  iron  in  the  country  to  justify  the  hope  of  manu- 
facture there.  Fruits,  grain,  and  live  stock  would  provide  the  chief  employ- 
ments. 

Jewish  children  learn  easily  and  readily  to  adapt  themselves  to  new 
environments  and  a  variety  of  work  and  study.  One  has  been  led  to  won- 
der what  the  language  of  the  country  would  be.  Fully  twenty  languages 
are  spoken  in  Jerusalem.  But  what  language  will  the  Jews  adopt?  They 
come  from  different  nations  of  the  earth.  Most  of  them  speak  Yiddish,  "a 
spoiled  German."  Here  is  what  Mossinsohn  has  to  say  on  the  subject  of 
schools  in  the  Holy  Land: 

"With  the  growth  of  the  population  and  its  approximation  to  hu- 
man life,  the  need  for  public  education  began  to  make  itself  felt,  and 
the  Zionist  organization  undertook  the  establishment  and  support  of 
a  complete  system  of  public  and  high  schools,  in  which  the  language 
of  the  instruction  is  Hebrew.  Every  Jewish  settlement  was 
provided  with  a  kindergarten  and  elementary  schools,  and  high 
schools  were  established.  Hebrew  thus  became  a  living  tongue 
once  more.  Even  in  America,  Yiddish-speaking  parents  have 
found  it  necessary  to  master  Hebrew  in  order  that  they  may 


30  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

be  able  to  keep  in  spiritual  touch  with  their  children.  Only  in 
Palestine  the  parents,  loving  the  new  old-tongue,  are  mastering 
it  as  completely  as  the  children  for  whom  it  is  the  only  language — 
the  language  of  play,  of  study,  of  romance,  of  ambition,  of  life  itself. 
Before  the  war  there  were  plans  for  a  Jewish  university.  We  now  have 
the  curious  innovation  of  the  Hebrew  language  printed  above  shops 
and  business  places  of  Arabs  and  other  nationalities.  The  Arab  is 
the  principal  language  of  Palestine  today.  There  are  very  few  Turks 
in  the  country.  They  are  the  government  officials.  How  much  of  the 
modern  Hebrew  the  ancient  Jews  would  understand  is  questionable. 
It  is  certain  that  modern  Hebrew  will  have  to  incorporate  a  large 
number  of  words  from  foreign  languages  to  meet  the  progress  of  life 
in  art  and  science.  The  Jews  learn  foreign  languages  rapidly.  In 
their  scattered  condition  they  have  been  compelled  to  speak  a  variety 
of  tongues  so  that  their  children  have  inherited  a  linguistic  genius." 

A  general  Jewish  movement  to  the  Holy  Land  would  have  a  marked 
social  and  business  effect  on  many  leading  nations  of  the  world.  It  is  not 
easy  to  compute  the  enormous  control  exercised  by  this  race  in  the  United 
States.  Clothing,  railroads,  and  manufactures  are  rapidly  falling  into  their 
control.  Their  genius  for  trade  is  known  the  world  over.  They  are  with- 
out doubt  the  most  tenacious  race  in  the  world  today.  What  other  people 
could  have  withstood  the  shifting  conditions  of  life  as  they  have  withstood 
them?  They  are  truly  a  "peculiar  people." 

Since  the  above  was  written  Jerusalem  has  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the 
British  (See  Improvement  Era,  January,  1918,  pp.  254,  259). 

Revelation. — "And  this  I  have  told  you  concerning  Jerusalem,  and  when 
the  day  shall  come,  shall  a  remnant  be  scattered  among  all  nations; 

"But  they  shall  be  gathered  again,  but  they  shall  remain  until  the  times 
of  the  Gentiles  be  fulfilled. 

"And  in  that  day  shall  be  heard  of  wars  and  rumors  of  wars,  and  the 
whole  earth  shall  be  in  commotion,  and  men's  hearts  shall  fail  them,  and 
they  shall  say  that  Christ  delayeth  his  coming  until  the  end  of  the  earth. 

"And  the  love  of  men  shall  wax  cold,  and  iniquity  shall  abound"  (Doc. 
and  Cov.  45:24-27). 

Key  to  John's  Revelation. — What  is  to  be  understood  by  the  two  wit- 
nesses, in  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Revelation?  A.  They  are  two  prophets 
that  are  to  be  raised  up  to  the  Jewish  nation  in  the  last  days,  at  the  time 
of  the  restoration,  and  to  prophesy  to  the  Jews,  after  they  are  gathered,  and 
build  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  in  the  land  of  their  fathers  (Doc.  and  Cov. 
77:15). 


XIII.— The  Reaction  of  War  Weapons  on  Civil  Life 

History. — It  has  sometimes  been  estimated  that  the  destruction  to  human 
life  through  the  invention  of  gunpowder  has  been  greater  in  peace  than  in 
war.  Certain  it  is  that  the  implements  and  forces  of  human  destruction 
which  war  invents  and  perfects  have  always  been  a  striking  menace  to  so- 
cial life  in  times  of  peace. 

War  engenders  a  spirit  of  reckless  hatred  which  manifests  itself  long 
after  the  battle-fields  are  silent.  Men,  during  wars  of  long  duration,  become 
accustomed  to  its  horrors.  They  look  upon  death  with  a  spirit  of  indiffer- 
ence. Battle-fields  become  the  source  of  desperation  and  a  reckless  despair. 
The  wrongs,  the  sufferings  of  war  make  men  often  willing  to  continue  its 
horrors  when  the  struggle  has  ceased.  Often,  too,  the  contest  of  wars  brings 
about  such  conditions  of  unhappiness,  of  want  and  misery  that  men  become 
free-booters  and  plunderers  because,  they  argue,  society  is  dealing  unjustly 
with  them.  The  present  war  has  developed,  to  a  marvelous  state  of  effici- 
ency, two  engines  of  human  destruction  with  which  the  world  may  here- 
after be  compelled  to  combat.  They  are  the  airplane  and  the  submarine. 

Possibilities. — It  does  not  require  a  very  vivid  imagination  to  picture 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  31 

what  the  airplane  might  do  in  its  lawless  course  of  plundering  and  human 
destruction.  If  the  hatred  of  the  battlefield  is  supplanted  by  social  hatreds, 
it  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  that  an  unlawful  career  by  aviators  may  be  de- 
veloped in  such  a  way  as  to  threaten  social  destruction.  It  is  already  dif- 
ficult to  police  the  land  in  the  cities  and  counties  of  our  country.  Murders, 
thefts,  and  wholesale  robberies  have  been  altogether  too  common  in  times 
of  peace.  Our  industrial  machinery  is  a  most  complicated  affair,  and  it  is 
so  highly  wrought  that  any  destruction  of  it  or  any  disturbance  even  in  its 
workings  may  cause  vast  losses  to  property  and  great  human  destruction. 

Let  us  take,  for  example,  from  among  the  vast  number  of  aviators  whom 
we  shall  train,  the  few  that  may  become  desperate  and  unscrupulous  in  the 
exercise  of  the  powers  at  their  command.  It  will  be  conceded  that  the  op- 
portunities of  escape  from  criminal  action  will  find  in  the  airplane  the 
greatest  possible  aid.  Its  mechanism  has  become  so  perfected  that  the  air 
craft  may  be  able  to  carry  a  considerable  load  of  plunder.  In  comparison 
with  it,  the  automobile,  which  has  been  used  for  all  sorts  of  depredations, 
is  insignificant.  The  great  future  danger,  however,  of  the  aircrafts,  will 
be  more  in  the  direction  of  social  warfare.  The  relations  of  capital  and 
labor  are  growing  daily  more  alarming.  When  it  reaches  a  certain  point, 
it  becomes  an  explosive,  and  manifests  itself  in  all  sorts  of  violence.  Great 
manufacturing  plants  and  property  of  all  kinds  might  be  suddenly  destroyed 
by  dropping  bombs  from  the  aerial  regions.  We  are  compelled,  therefore, 
to  ask  ourselves  some  very  serious  questions.  Shall  we  be  able  efficiently 
to  police  the  upper  regions?  If  not,  what  protection  shall  be  enjoyed 
against  the  dangers  that  the  airplanes  have  the  power  to  bring  about  in 
times  of  peace? 

Coming  Events. — It  may  be  said  that  the  suggestions  here  condemned 
are  mere  possibilities.  But  possibilities  usually  shape  themselves  on  to  a 
working  basis.  First  men  conceive  the  possibility  of  some  scheme,  even 
though  it  be  malevolent;  then  conditions  arise  to  make  the  possible  the 
probable; — the  next  step  is  the  reality.  The  old  Scotch  Bard  very  truth- 
fully and  historically  says  that  "Coming  events  cast  their  shadows  before." 

In  past  ages  the  world  in  times  of  peace  has  been  made  to  suffer  from 
free-booters  whose  piracy  on  the  oceans  has  made  man  and  money  their 
prey  in  the  illegal  warfare  which  they  have  waged  upon  the  oceans.  History 
records  the  reign  of  terror  instituted  upon  the  oceans  by  such  characters  as 
Edward  England,  Fortunatus  Wright,  and  Captain  Kidd.  These  buccaneers 
were  the  terror  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Civilization  was  advanced,  and  they 
were  driven  from  their  criminal  life,  and  the  seas  made  safe  from  their 
depredations.  They  ceased  only  when  civilized  powers  were  able,  by  united 
effort,  to  drive  them  away  from  their  unlawful  careers. 

The  civilized  nations  have  invented  a  new  danger.  It  will  have  to  be 
fought  in  the  future  as  the  old  dangers  were  fought  and  destroyed  in  the 
past.  We  know  something,  if  only  a  little,  of  the  wonderful  advancement 
of  the  under-sea  boats,  and  the  havoc  they  have  wrought  in  times  of  war. 
They  are  now  so  constructed  that  they  are  like  a  modern  ship,  and  have 
from  800  to  1,000  tons  displacement;  the  largest  measure  from  213  to  230 
feet  in  length;  they  are  driven  by  enormous  engines  of  7,000  and  8,000 
horse-power,  and  carry  great  19%-inch  torpedoes.  If  they  are  made  to 
withstand  the  attacks  made  upon  them  in  the  war,  what  a  wonderful  power 
they  will  have  for  destruction  in  times  of  peace! 

Illustration. — That  one  may  know  that  the  contemplation  of  dangers 
here  enumerated  is  giving  rise  to  serious  speculations,  I  quote  somewhat  at 
length  from  the  Calgary  Herald,  November  10,  1917: 

"While  German  submarine  commanders  are  testing  and  discover- 
ing the  virtually  unlimited  possibilities  of  the  U-boat,  there  are  indi- 
cations that  the  groundwork  is  being  laid  for  a  period  of  piracy  after 
the  war.  Surely,  these  commanders  are  glimpsing  the  ease  with  which 
they  could  prey  upon  the  world's  shipping  and  make  rich  hauls  in 
gold  and  merchandise. 


32  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

"I  maintain  that  it  would  be  very  simple  for  a  German  submarine 
commander  privately  to  carry  on  piracy  for  a  considerable  period 
without  knowledge  of  his  government.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
the  crew  on  a  submarine  craft  is  necessarily  very  small.  That  makes 
but  few  to  share  a  secret.  By  appealing  to  their  cupidity  and  their 
already  well-developed  spirit  of  lawlessness,  a  submarine  commander 
would  have  little  difficulty  in  winning  over  his  crew  to  a  scheme  to 
enrich  themselves  at  the  expense  of  the  world's  shipping. 

"Let  us  say,  for  example,  that  a  submarine  commander  learns  of 
the  sailing  of  an  American  steamship  to  England  with  a  cargo  of  gold. 
How  simple  it  would  be  for  the  submarine  to  attack  that  ship  at  some 
favorable  point  on  the  ocean  and  make  a  getaway  with  a  large  portion 
of  the  specie.  How  could  it  be  possible  to  trace  the  pirates?  I  think 
you  will  agree  it  would  be  difficult. 

"Then,  again,  there  are  the  submarine  commanders  who  will  likely 
break  away  from  their  government  and  boldly  enter  the  game  of 
piracy.  For  instance,  when  a  U-boat  does  not  return  to  its  govern- 
ment base,  officials  of  the  government  will  likely  conjecture  that  the 
craft  has  been  lost  at  sea.  The  missing  U-boat  can  select  a  base  on 
some  isolated  island  or  coast  and  operate  for  a  considerable  period 
without  discovery.  After  two  or  three  good  hauls  the  commander 
and  crew  could  well  afford  to  sink  the  craft  to  the  bed  of  the  ocean, 
divide  the  booty  and  scatter  to  far  lands  and  live  forever  in  plenty. 

"Although  these  are  only  conjectures,  they  are  likely  to  be  real- 
ized in  the  near  future  in  a  manner  that  is  caluculated  to  jolt  civiliza- 
tion. It  will  be  a  great  boon  to  the  civilized  world  if  American  genius 
in  the  near  future  discovers  an  antidote  for  the  U-boat." 

Deadly  Gases. — Among  other  dangerous  inventions  of  the  present  war, 
the  production  of  deadly  gases  for  military  purposes  may  be  made  in  times 
of  peace  a  source  of  human  destruction  which  the  hatreds  of  the  present 
war  are  likely  to  encourage.  Where  secrecy  in  crime  is  required,  the 
poisonous  gases  may  have  the  most  baneful  effects.  It  is  easy  to  imagine 
that  in  times  of  strikes,  manufacturing  plants  may  be  made  wholly  useless 
from  the  dangers  which  these  gases  would  create  when  secretly  circulated 
throughout  the  buildings.  It  is  the  testimony  of  history  that  crime  has 
been  fostered  by  means  of  those  devices  which  war  has  created.  What  gases 
may  do  is  perhaps  best  explained  by  Howard  J.  Allen.  Writing  for  the 
New  York  Tribune  from  Paris,  he  says,  in  the  issue  of  that  paper  of 
October  7,  1917: 

"Of  all  the  unspeakable  cruelties  of  this  war  the  gas  is  probably 
the  most  inhuman  manifestation.  Both  sides  are  using  it  with  growing 
efficiency.  You  never  know  when  you  are  to  encounter  it  in  some 
terrible  and  heretofore  unknown  form. 

"One  new  wrinkle  invented  by  the  Germans  is  called  'mustard  gas' 
by  our  soldiers.  While  it  cannot  get  behind  the  mask,  it  is  so  strong 
that  it  permeates  the  clothing.  Whenever  a  man's  body  becomes 
moist  from  perspiration  or  rain  the  gas  attacks  him  and  burns  off 
his  skin. 

"The  British  have  made  a  gas  the  purpose  of  which  is  to  compel 
the  enemy  to  remove  his  mask.  It  is  a  powerful  emetic  gas.  It  afflicts 
the  Germans  with  nausea,  so  that  they  cannot  keep  their  mouths 
covered.  If  they  uncover  their  faces  for  six  seconds  the  amount  of 
inhalation  is  fatal.  They  die  at  once,  or,  as  is  sometimes  the  case, 
twenty-four  hours  later  from  heart  disease.  We  are  told  that  the 
Germans  declare  the  use  of  this  gas  unfair  on  the  part  of  the  British. 
Men  laugh  when  they  tell  it." 

Revelation. — "Mine  indignation  is  soon  to  be  poured  out  without  meas- 
ure upon  all  nations,  and  this  I  will  do  when  the  cup  of  their  iniquity  is 
full"  (Doc.  and  Cov.  101:11). 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  33 

XIV — Intemperance 

Prohibition. — Temperance  is  more  than  a  code  of  laws  which  we  call 
prohibition.  It  is  a  duty  we  owe  to  our  God,  our  families;  a  duty  to  be- 
come our  brothers'  keepers.  The  world  has  become  greatly  alarmed  over 
the  degeneracy  of  manhood  and  over  the  increased  allurements  to  woman- 
hood through  drink.  The  banker  found  it  an  insidious  enemy.  The  manu- 
facturer bewailed  the  inefficiency  of  those  who  through  drink  obstructed 
his  progress.  It  became  more  and  more  a  great  economic  question. 
Through  it  the  stability  of  business  life  was  broken.  As  long  as  it  had 
apparently  no  other  evil  than  the  destruction  of  the  home,  the  hunger  of 
children,  the  broken  hearts  of  wives  and  mothers,  the  world  tolerated  it 
beyond  belief.  It  was  a  sordid  world  .and  material  gains  outweighed 
spiritual  values. 

Once  it  touched  business  and  laid  its  hands  violently  upon  commercial 
life  men  of  affairs  rose  up  in  antagonism  to  it,  and  yet  all  the  arguments 
of  dollars  and  cents  were  weak  compared  with  the  destruction  it  wrought 
in  the  moral  and  spiritual  life  of  the  world.  The  argument  of  business 
was  that  drink  cost  the  United  States  six  billion  dollars  every  year.  Men 
of  science  declared  that  two  drinks  a  day  would  slow  down  the  energy  of 
the  brain  from  eight  to  twenty  per  cent. 

Increase  of  Vice. — We  have  introduced  prohibition  in  many  of  the 
states  of  the  Union.  Will  that  produce  temperance?  It  will  help,  but  it 
will  take  time.  There  will  be  arguments  against  it,  and  statistics  brought 
to  prove  the  arguments  and  to  prove  the  prosperity  of  the  nations  by  what 
people  can  afford  for  drink.  The  following  comes  from  the  New  York  Sun 
of  September  5,  1917: 

"Despite  the  high  cost  of  living  the  people  of  the  United  States 
consumed  26,000,000  gallons  more  of  distilled  spirits  in  the  fiscal  year 
ending  June  30th  last  than  in  the  year  before. 

"They  needed  for  their  comfort  879,180,583  more  cigars  and  9,440,- 
000,000  more  cigarettes — the  latter  increase  being  ascribed  by  the  un- 
gallant  internal  revenue  bureau  to  the  increase  of  cigarette  smoking 
among  women.  We  refuse  to  accept  the  explanation. 

"Chewing  and  smoking  consumption  increased  by  28,500,000 
pounds.  Snuff, — where  it  is  used, — went  up  2,200,000  pounds. 

"Washington  officials  point  to  this  record  of  increasing  expendi- 
tures for  luxuries  as  an  evidence  of  great  prosperity.  Perhaps  it  is. 
But  it  is  a  poor  promise  for  future  prosperity.  The  spectacle  of  a 
nation  clamorous  against  the  increased  price  of  food  and  of  every 
necessary  of  life  increasing  its  annual  expenditures  for  liquor  and 
tobacco  by  millions  is  not  very  inspiriting." 

Downward  Movement. — Nothing  proves  more  strikingly  the  rapid  slide 
downward  which  the  social  life  of  our  nation  is  taking.  Can  it  be  stopped? 
What  can  stop  it?  Such  a  showing  illustrates  the  fallacy  of  merely  apply- 
ing a  legal  remedy,  and  then  awaiting  complacently  the  coming  millennium. 
Law  is  not  the  great  remedy  for  vice.  Law  hits  more  forcefully  at  crimes 
—the  grosser  crimes  along  whose  mountain  sides  lie  the  rolling  hills  01 
vice.  But  law  can  help.  And  it  must  be  helped,  or  it  will  fail.  It  is 
perhaps  one  of  the  greatest  objections  to  law  that  it  lures  men  into  the 
belief  that  nothing  more  is  needed  of  them.  Let  the  law  take  its  course, 
is  the  fallacy  of  self-contented  failure.  Law  requires,  when  it  deals  with 
vice,  the  aid  of  public  opinion  and  individual  effort.  It  is  sustained  effort 
that  carries  great  reforms  on  to  victory.  It  is  to  him  who  endures  to  the 
end.  One  of  the  greatest  dangers  in  the  prohibition  movement  of  the  world 
today  is  the  false  argument  of  a  victory  won.  Victory  is  not  won,  it  is 
merely  a  promise.  To  make  laws  successful  in  questions  of  vice  (I  make  a 
clear  distinction  between  vice  and  crime),  there  must  not  only  be  a  strong, 


34  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

but  a  lasting  public  will.  Any  reaction  invites  defeat.  Why  does  law 
against  vice  often  fail  so  lamentably?  The  masses  are  prone  to  one  vice  or 
another.  Men  will  excuse  their  own  and  tolerate  kindred  vices.  Crimes 
are  more  loathsome,  and  are  the  practices  of  the  comparatively  few.  In 
matters  of  vice  it  will  not  do  to  watch  and  wait. 

Kindred  Vices. — It  may  be  well  to  note  that  vices  are  multiplying.  Our 
forefathers  would  be  appalled  today  at  the  sight  of  the  great  brood  of 
vices  which  were  wholly  unknown  in  their  day.  They  had  evils  to  be  sure, 
plenty  of  them,  all  they  could  endure.  Vice  has  its  fashions  and  many  of 
them  change  annually;  it  is  the  fashion  of  fashions  to  change.  It  is  not 
primarily  a  question  of  art  with  fashion.  When  it  wins  a  certain  following, 
il  marches  on  to  universality.  Vice  is  in  a  high  degree  a  fashion,  not  in  its 
dress,  but  in  its  kinship  to  dress.  Dress  and  vice  in  all  ages  have  had 
striking  resemblances.  It  was  so  in  ancient  times.  Fashion,  drink,  and 
sexual  sin  have  always  been  the  three  graces  of  the  underworld. 

It  is  difficult  to  single  out  one  vice  and  push  it  away  from  all  its  rela- 
tions of  cousins,  aunts,  and  nieces.  Sooner  or  later  they  will  meet.  Liquor 
is  simply  one  of  many  vices.  It  is  hard  to  banish  when  its  pals  are  allowed 
to  stay.  To  make  prohibition  fulfil  its  mission  there  must  come  into  action 
a  concerted  movement  against  the  kindred  evils  of  the  one  it  seeks  to 
abolish.  Temperance  is  what  the  world  needs  to  correct  the  monstrous 
evil  of  drink.  It  is  temperance  in  thought  and  action;  temperance  in  high 
and  low  places;  temperance  in  language  and  motives;  temperance  in  fashion 
and  pleasure;  temperance  in  all  the  walks  of  daily  life.  It  is  reported  of 
President  Smith  that  when  he  was  once  asked  his  attitude  on  prohibition 
that  he  declared  himself  for  temperance,  that  which  corrects  a  multitude  of 
evils,  and  prevents  drink.  Without  temperance,  prohibition  must  fight 
single  handed.  Drink  is  the  companion  of  hilarity,  frivolity,  lacivious  dress 
and  immorality.  The  battle  to  victory  must  be  along  the  whole  line.  If 
one  only  is  attacked  and  driven  back  the  others  begin  a  flanking  movement 
that  lead  sooner  or  later  to  the  defeat  of  those  who  rush  on  to  the  attack 
of  the  enemy  in  one  place.  We  hope  and  pray  that  prohibition  may  be  a 
complete  antidote  for  the  evil  of  drink;  but  it  must  be  supported  by  the 
spirit  of  temperance.  The  card  table,  the  pool  room,  and  excessive  pleasures 
are  all  companions  of  drink.  When  drink  is  ordered  out,  her  devoted 
friends  will  by  sinister  ways  invite  her  return.  We  warn,  we  admonish  and 
expound  the  doctrine  of  temperance.  The  tide  of  a  dissipated  age  is  rolling 
up  against  us.  Shall  we  brace  and  hold  ourselves  against  it;  or  shall  we 
yield  and  falsely  comfort  ourselves  that  it  is  moving  shoreward;  that  we 
must  go  with  the  tide;  that  it  is  folly  to  move  against  it;  that  in  Rome  we 
must  do  as  Rome  does?  There  was  in  that  ancient  capital  a  body  of  de- 
voted and  despised  people,  the  early  Christians,  that  did  not  do  as  Rome 
did.  But  they  paid  the  penalty,  the  cynic  says.  Suffering  was  not  a  penalty; 
it  developed  in  them  the  power  of  redemption.  Their  good  works  survived, 
and  out  of  them  a  new  world  sprang  up,  a  new  civilization  was  born,  a  new 
promise  fulfilled.  But  other  tides  of  life  came  in  the  recurring  events  of 
the  nations.  The  old  dies  and  the  new  is  born.  There  is  always  a  struggle 
between  life  and  death.  Intemperance  has  always  been  a  potent  sign  of 
decay.  It  stalks  in  the  world  today;  it  is  everywhere;  it  knocks  at  the  door 
of  the  Saints,  and  would  delight  them  with  the  sweet  intonations  of  its 
voice.  Temperance,  that  is  the  key-note  of  safety. 

Dangers  of  Excesses. — Rivalry  is  the  spirit  of  the  age.  Rivalry  means 
excess;  excess,  intemperance.  Who  can  have  the  best  time  is  the  ambition 
of  youth.  Seekers  after  a  good  time  vie  with  one  another  in  dress,  in  social 
pastimes,  and  in  all  kinds  of  physical  excesses.  We  are  reminded  that  we 
eat  too  much,  as  well  as  drink  too  much,  that  we  eat  the  wrong  kind  of 
food,  that  we  are  extravagant  beyond  all  reason.  Men  build  big  houses 
which  they  do  not  need;  they  waste  time  and  money  in  joy  rides;  and  they 
seek  opportunity  to  display  wealth  that  does  not  really  belong  to  them. 
Debt  is  the  fashion  of  the  age.  It  is  overwhelming  the  permanency  of  com- 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  .          35 

• 

mercial  life.  Everywhere  in  life  the  laws  of  temperance  are  violated,  if  not 
positively  outraged.  He  who  stands  for  temperance  is  a  benefactor  to  his 
people  and  his  race. 

As  Rome  Does. — And  what  is  the  argument  in  favor  of  all  this  life  of 
intemperance?  It  is  the  old  fallacy  of  "living  in  Rome."  Tides  are  always 
shattered  at  the  shore;  the  break  waters  of  life  do  not  fall  down  from 
heaven  to  stop  the  rolling  tide.  They  are  made  foot  by  foot,  inch  by  inch. 
Little  by  little  the  forces  of  resistance  are  built  up.  We  may  not  destroy 
the  tide,  but  we  may  break,  if  we  will,  much  of  the  power  of  its  destruction. 
Here  a  man  and  there  a  woman  braced  in  force  against  the  evils  of  the  day 
may  dissipate  many  of  them.  As  resistance  grows,  evils  scatter.  They  may 
go  on,  but  every  fracture  in  them  lessens  the  power  of  their  destruction. 
The  priesthood,  for  whom  these  words  are  written,  stand  to  the  front  as  a 
resisting  force  to  the  evils  of  the  age. 

Remedy. — An  eminent  U.  S.  Senator  was  asked  if  the  treatment  he 
received  at  the  Battle  Creek  Sanitarium  had  helped  him.  He  replied  that 
it  had;  but  that  a  "Mormon"  might  have  told  him  all  that  he  got  there  in 
three  words— "Word  of  Wisdom"  (Read  Sec.  89,  Doc.  and  Cov.) 


XV — A  Pleasure  Loving  Age 

Pleasure  and  Joy. — Shall  we  have  pleasure?  What  is  pleasure?  It  is; 
the  one  thing  the  age  is  striving  for.  Toward  it  men  and  women  in  all 
lands  are  bending  their  energies  and  for  it  they  are  consuming  their  wealth. 
But  pleasure  is  neither  joy,  nor  happiness.  The  latter  words  may  be  used 
interchangeably.  The  Book  of  Mormon  teaches  that  "Man  is  that  he  may 
have  joy."  Pleasure  is  an  experience,  chiefly  one  of  selfishness.  It  is  also 
physical  and  administers  to  the  sensations  of  the  body.  It  is  intoxicating 
to  the  mind  and  produces  the  dizziness  of  hilarious  pastimes.  But  what  is 
joy?  "It  is  the  rebound  of  sorrow,"  says  Straghan.  "Blessed  are  they  that 
mourn,  for  they  shall  be  comforted."  Comfort  is  joy.  If  we  read  what 
gave  joy  to  the  holy  men  and  women  of  the  Bible  we  shall  get  perhaps  the 
best  interpretation  of  it.  But  pleasure  is  not  happiness.  It  may  be  well 
to  keep  that  distinction,  paradoxical  as  it  may  seem.  It  is  often  said  that 
those  who  pursue  pleasure  never  find  it.  They  may  find  pleasure  but  not 
joy.  Do  we  want  pleasure,  do  we  need  it?  Undoubtedly,  there  are  whole- 
some pleasures,  physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual.  They  are  such  as 
come  from  a  healthy  state  of  our  being.  They  are  never  an  aim  in  them- 
selves. They  are  scattered  along  the  way  of  life,  and  are  experiences  that 
come  from  wholesome  living.  Is  happiness  the  rebound  of  sorrow?  We 
have  a  beautiful  example  in  Sarah,  who  through  a  long  life  sorrowed  for 
children.  "My  heart,"  she  said,  "exulteth  in  the  Lord."  The  Hebrew  poet 
sings  the  praises  felt  by  the  sorrowing  exiles  after  their  long  years  of 
separation  from  their  beloved  country, 

"When  the  Lord  brought  home  again  the  captives  of  Zion. 

We  were  like  them  that  dream, 

Then  was  our  mouth  filled  with  laughter, 

And  our  tongue  with  melody." 

Joy  expresses  itself  nowhere  better  than  in  manifestations  of  gratitude. 
It  praises  God  in  an  exultant  spirit.  In  Nehemiah  the  Jews  were  told  that 
"the  joy  of  the  Lord  is  your  strength."  What  a  sorrow  hangs  over  the 
world  today!  Will  it  bring  comfort  to  those  who  mourn? 

There  is  no  happiness  without  work.  It  is  work  that  brings  to  the 
human  soul  the  satisfaction  of  a  great  reward.  It  is  not  so  much  the  satis- 
faction of  a  material  reward  as  it  is  the  ability  to  enjoy  what  God  has 
provided  for  us.  Work  brings  fatigue  which  makes  sleep,  food  and  rest 
so  enjoyable. 


36  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

If  we  are  drifting  away  from  the  God  ordained  duties  of  life  we  curtail 
our  joy  whatever  the  momentary  pleasures  may  be.  A  pleasure  loving 
world  becomes  sensational.  Its  ideals  are  misshapen,  and  distortion  dis- 
turbs seriously  all  the  functions  of  life.  The  conscience  is  deadened;  the 
organs  of  the  body  give  pain.  The  rebound  from  excessive  pleasure  is  pain. 

Temptations  of  Pleasure. — Pleasure  lends  itself  to  temptations  that  in 
turn  lead  to  pleasures  that  are  iniquitous.  It  greatly  disturbs  the  serious 
nature  of  man,  and  unfits  him  for  the  higher  duties  of  life.  There  is  no 
age  set  apart  for  pleasure.  To  the  young  it  is  a  snare  and  robs  the  soul 
of  youth  of  its  preparation  for  the  struggles  of  life.  It  weakens  the  young 
in  the  presence  of  responsibilities.  Bodily  strength  gives  way  in  the  midst 
of  it. 

Has  God,  in  his  infinite  mercy,  called  a  halt  upon  the  frivolities  of 
human  life  by  throwing  it  into  the  whirl  of  a  destructive  war?  The  young 
manhood  of  our  nation  is  in  a  process  of  decay.  The  great  majority,  we  are 
told,  are  not  fit  for  service.  We  are  marshaling  our  young  into  training 
camps  that  they  may  be  finished  by  strenuous  exercise  for  service.  It  is 
possible  that  the  great  army  of  unfits  shall  be  left  to  perish  by  its  own 
hands.  Can  some  means  not  be  found  for  regeneration?  What  a  dismal 
outlook  confronts  the  world.  Self-destruction  and  war  threaten  the  world 
with  annihilation.  Is  universal  destruction  decreed?  In  the  midst  of  it 
all  the  excessive  worldly  pleasures  go  on.  Men  and  women  refuse  to  be- 
come serious  minded.  There  is  no  stop  to  "hear  and  hush"  to  the  roar  of 
cannon.  Out  of  the  harrowing  scenes  of  the  battlefield  writers  seek  to  feed 
the  morbid  curiosity  of  millions  who  have  no  thought  of  consequences. 

Fashions. — Fashions  are  displayed  through  public  print  for  an  age  that 
is  more  absorbed  in  the  fancies  of  the  world  than  in  its  sobriety.  "Sugges- 
tive" dress  enamours  the  public  eye.  The  spirit  of  the  world  is  "eat,  drink 
and  be  merry,  for  tomorrow  we  die."  The  headlong  rush  into  earthly 
pleasures  foredooms  the  world  to  its  own  destruction. 

As  I  write,  I  take  up  the  London  Times  of  August  17,  and  in  the 
Fashions  column  there  appears  the  following: 

"A  very  dull  old  rose  velvet  looked  well  in  a  little  dress  trimmed 
with  brown  fur  and  a  touch  of  old  gold  embroidery.  For  evening 
wear  some  are  rather  bright  when  black  and  black-and-white  are  set 
on  one  side,  but  black  and  black-and-white  models  abound.  Fine 
pale  rose  taffetas,  delicately  embroidered  in  silver,  with  puffy  short 
sleeves  in  white  tulle  sprinkled  with  silver,  make  a  youthful  dance 
dress,  and  a  regular  Court  dress  was  in  torquoise  blue  velvet  and  tulle. 
But  the  black  satin,  black  messeline,  black  net  and  black  velvet  dresses 
with  jet  trimmings,  were  more  frequent.  The  embroidery  at  a  certain 
house  is  extraordinarily  fine  and  eighteenth  century  in  style.  No 
coarse  woolen  embroidery  is  to  be  seen,  but  delicate  silk  and  thread 
and  silver  and  gold  work  on  silks,  satins,  and  messelines,  and  fine 
serge." 

This  is  England  in  war,  England  in  distress.  It  reads  like  a  page  from 
Ancient  Rome,  when  women  were  doing  their  full  share  to  bring  a 
universal  destruction  of  the  Empire.  The  fashions  and  follies  of  the  age 
suffer  little  restraint  in  the  presence  of  calamities  which  threaten  even  social 
existence.  Pleasure  will  not  surrender  its  indulgences,  however  grave  the 
situation. 

Rivalry. — Excessive  social  pleasures  are  sources  of  jealousy,  envy  and 
quarrelsome  relations  among  the  young.  They  do  much  to  destroy  the  cor- 
diality that  should  exist  in  social  life.  They  break  up  young  couples  in 
courtship  and  bring  dissension  in  the  home.  They  beget  a  selfish  spirit 
that  is  destructive  of  useful  service  in  all  the  walks  of  life.  The  thought 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  37 

beneath  a  pleasure  loving  age  is  what  others  do  for  me,  not  what  service  I 
may  render  to  others.  Pleasure  breeds  discontent  and  ingratitude.  Social 
disruptions  and  bickerings  grow  out  of  it.  When  sacrifices  come,  as  they 
must  come  to  the  lives  of  all,  they  are  borne  with  impatience  and  hatreds. 
There  can  be  no  ultimate  satisfaction  in  a  pleasure  loving  life,  which 
creates  disappointment  rather  than  joy.  First  comes  envy  of  others,  then 
hatred  of  them,  and  more  deadly  still,  hatred  of  one's  self.  Such  a  life 
poisons  the  soul,  warps  the  judgment,  and  embitters  the  hearts  of  men  and 
women.  It  leads  to  quarrels  in  the  home,  and  often  ends  in  divorce.  What: 
is  perhaps  the  most  serious  result  of  a  life  given  to  pleasure  is  the  destruc- 
tion in  mature  years  and  in  old  age  of  the  peace  and  satisfaction  which 
advancing  years  must  have  if  life  is  to  become  tolerable.  In  the  end 
pleasure  strives  for  social  distinction,  and  the  advancing  generation  finds 
itself  thrust  aside  by  the  new.  More  and  more  the  devotees  of  pleasure 
learn  that  the  fruits  of  their  efforts  and  ambition  are  bitter;  their  attitude 
to  life  is  one  of  regret  and  sorrow. 

Pleasure  and  Learning. — Disappointment  and  emptiness  teach  pleasure 
nothing.  When  excessive  it  cannot  learn,  for  it  is  self-absorbed.  It  enters 
into  school  life  and  robs  the  young  of  that  application  which  they  need  so 
much  for  their  intellectual  advancement.  It  robs  boys  and  girls  of  their 
efficiency,  and  leaves  them  the  victims  of  an  unreal  world.  They  lose  the 
power  which  enables  them  to  resist  temptation  and  it  creates  habits  of 
life  that  often  lead  to  despair. 

On  the  other  hand,  happiness  has  a  well-founded  reason  for  its  exist- 
ence. It  represents  the  fruit  of  right  living.  It  is  the  reward  of  truth, 
service  and  devotion.  Those  who  see  nothing  in  their  lives  for  which  they 
may  hope  for  happiness  try  worldly  pleasures  as  a  substitute.  There  is  no 
way  of  drowning  sorrow  by  a  plunge  into  the  whirl  of  a  pleasure  loving 
age.  "Drowning  sorrow"  is  the  philosophy  of  despair.  How  shall  this 
world-wide  evil  that  is  destroying  usefulness  and  happiness  be  corrected? 

The  spirit  of  duty  and  responsibility  is  the  antidote  for  the  idolatrous 
pleasure  of  the  age.  Sometimes  our  young  people  are  heard  to  complain 
that  they  have  too  many  organizations  in  the  Church.  Night  after  night 
some  meeting  makes  its  demands  for  them.  There  are  home  preparations 
to  absorb  their  leisure  hours.  To  them  duty  sometimes  grows  irksome  and 
some  escape  the  responsibilities  which  the  Church  puts  upon  all  who  will 
work.  To  escape  responsibility  is  to  court  failure.  To  shirk  a  duty  is  to 
enter  a  temptation.  A  life  of  responsibility  and  duty  is  full  of  all  the 
good  things  which  God  has  in  store  for  his  children.  A  life  of  pleasure  is 
full  of  emptiness.  If  the  temptations  of  life  with  the  long  train  of  evils 
growing  out  of  them  are  to  be  withstood,  a  great  effort  must  be  made  to 
correct  the  excessive  love  for  pleasure  which  is  a  besetting  sin  of  the 
present  age. 

"But  it  is  not  given  that  one  man  should  possess  that  which  is  above  an- 
other, wherefore  the  world  lieth  in  sin"  (Doc.  and  Cov.  49:20). 

"And  inasmuch  as  ye  do  these  things  with  thanksgiving,  with  cheerful 
hearts  and  countenances;  not  with  much  laughter,  for  this  is  sin,  but  with 
a  glad  heart  and  a  cheerful  countenance  *  *  *  *  the  fulness  of  the 
earth  is  yours"  (Doc.  and  Cov.  59:15,16). 


XVI— Financial  Respectability 

Definition. — What  is  financial  respectability?  It  is  demanded  and  must 
be  defined.  Each  has,  perhaps,  his  own  interpretation,  though  he  may  be 
actuated  very  greatly  by  public  opinion  and  his  social  business  life.  Prac- 
tically, it  consists  of  a  man's  business  activities, — what  he  does, — and  is  not 
always  governed  by  what  his  balance  would  be  if  he  were  forced  into 
liquidation.  Appearances,  however,  he  must  maintain.  Should  he  have  an 
auto,  should  his  home  life  be  based  upon  some  good  round  sum  of  money 
for  a  residence,  and  is  it  necessary  to  know  now  much  he  owes? 


38  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

Credits. — One  thing  is  certain,  however.  Our  credit  system  is  enlarging 
by  leaps  and  bounds.  It  touches  almost  every  man  in  business  life.  The 
farmers  owe  their  billions.  Also  the  merchant.  All  are  dependent  upon 
our  banking  system  and  their  credit  at  the  bank  is  of  course  an  important 
asset. 

Financial  respectability,  however,  is  setting  higher  and  higher  yearly  its 
social  standards.  It  brings  along  in  its  train  envy,  jealousy,  and  often 
bickerings.  National  jealousy  and  rivalry  had  much  to  do  with  the  present 
war.  If  such  rivalry  is  dangerous  to  the  nation  at  large,  it  is  also  dangerous 
to  the  individual.  Should  a  panic  follow  the  present  period  of  expansion 
and  extravagance  it  would  be  more  ruinous  than  anything  which  the  world 
has  ever  heretofore  experienced.  A  post-war  panic  is  quite  a  probability. 
It  will  be  a  miracle  if  we  escape  it,  and  now  while  times  are  good  and 
money  plentiful  is  a  good  time  to  establish  ourselves  for  coming  events. 

Methods. — The  problems  which  today  affect  us  are  the  methods  of 
financial  gain.  The  advice  of  the  father  to  the  son,  if  it  ever  holds  good, 
holds  good  now  more  than  ever:  "Get  money.  Get  it  honestly,  if  you  can, 
but  get  money."  In  such  an  age  as  we  now  have  it  is  almost  possible  to  do 
business,  to  launch  an  enterprise,  without  capital;  and  that  means,  of  course, 
in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  a  hundred,  credit.  There  are  some  aspects,  how- 
ever, of  the  financial  fever  from  which  we  are  suffering  that  deeply  concern 
the  Latter-day  Saints.  It  should  be  stated  that  the  credit  system  is  in  itself 
dangerous.  Men  start  by  borrowing  for  the  needs  of  their  business.  Money 
at  hand  then  leads  them  into  extravagance.  They  take  bounds  and  are 
unable  to  recover  themselves  and  there  are  literally  millions  throughout  the 
United  States  over  whose  financial  head  the  sword  of  Damacles  hangs. 

Psychology  of  Business. — We  have  also  what  might  be  called  the  psy- 
chology of  business.  This  consists  of  a  certain  training  and  a  certain  in- 
stinct by  which  men  are  not  only  able  to  judge  others,  but  by  which  they 
are  able,  by  their  persuasions,  to  convince.  In  other  words,  people  are 
often  literally  talked  out  of  their  money.  People's  peculiarities  are  played 
upon.  Advantages  are  taken  of  their  frame  of  mind  and  enthusiasm  is 
promoted  by  a  class  who  understand  the  method  of  its  creation.  In  this 
condition  of  business  life  exaggerations,  if  not  right  down  falsehoods,  are 
growing  altogether  too  common. 

A  man  in  Salt  Lake  City  was  called  into  an  office  some  time  ago  by  a 
gentleman  who  had  a  wonderful  invention  to  show  his  friend.  It  was  a 
railroad  signal  apparatus  which,  according  to  his  representation,  every 
railroad  in  the  country  was  anxious  to  get  hold  of.  The  agent  was  very 
enthusiastic,  pleasing  in  his  demeanor,  and  convincing  in  the  tones  of  his 
voice.  He  boldly  declared  that  he  would  guarantee  his  friend  that  inside 
of  six  months  he  could  double  his  money. 

The  man  from  the  street  was  not  without  some  experience.  He  said  he 
thought  he  would  take  a  block  of  that  stock  and  the  agent  was  then,  of 
course,  anxious  to  know  how  many  thousand  dollars  he  wanted.  He  could 
have  any  amount.  But  his  friend  said,  "I  would  like  to  know  who  the 
guarantors  are  to  be, — whether  they  are  able  to  respond  to  the  guarantee 
in  case  your  representations  do  not  prove  true."  Of  course,  that  ended  the 
effort.  The  agent's  declarations  of  guarantee  were  given  for  psychological 
effect.  They  were  not  to  be  taken  literally. 

Today  we  have  all  sorts  of  promoters,  especially  in  the  organization  of 
corporations.  They  exploit  the  people,  sell  many  thousand  dollars  worth  of 
stock,  and  too  often  it  turns  out  that  the  whole  business  was  only  a  psycho- 
logical enterprise. 

Mining  Exploitations. — Perhaps  one  of  the  most  fertile  fields  of  exploi- 
tation is  to  be  found  in  mining  stocks.  I  quote  from  Collier's  editorials, 
edited  by  Mark  Sullivan: 

"Have  you  bought  mining  stocks?     Sell  them.     Offer  them  back  to 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  39 

the  man  who  sold  them.  Offer  them  at  the  same  price.  Offer  them 
at  ten  per  cent  less.  Offer  them  at  twenty  per  cent  less.  This  will 
accomplish  your  own  disillusionment,  and  save  you  money,  for  you 
might  have  bought  more.  It  will  also  effect  exposure  to  the  person 
who  sold  you  the  stock.  Are  you  thinking  of  buying  shares  in  Poodle- 
dog  Inflated  or  Hoptoad  Jump  Along?  Don't.  And  this  "don't"  is 
without  qualification  of  any  kind.  To  women  chiefly,  wives  of  hus- 
bands of  the  high  wage-earning  class,  this  paragraph  is  commended. 
Not  that  it  is  their  folly  we  inveigh  against.  They  are  the  ones  who 
know  the  value  of  savings,  and  they  may  be  in  time  to  save  a  fatuous 
husband  from  an  act  of  inexcusable  folly. 

"If  you  are  tempted  by  the  full-page  advertisements  published  by 
the  newspaper  partners  of  mining  swindlers,  don't!  If  some  acquaint- 
ance is  urging  you  to  buy  shares,  he  either  profits  by  the  sale  or  is 
himself  deceived.  Daniel  Guggenheim  is  the  greatest  miner  in  the 
world.  He  and  his  six  brothers  own  mines  that  aggregate  a  billion 
dollars.  That  family  knows  more  about  mines  than  most  of  the  rest 
of  the  world  combined.  The  other  day  Mr.  Guggenheim  uttered  a 
solemn  warning  against  "the  flimsy  character  of  the  mining  stocks 
now  finding  a  ready  market."  "One  in  three  hundred,"  he  said,  "is  a 
conservative  estimate  of  the  proportion  of  prospects  that  eventually 
fulfil  their  promise."  Within  a  week  after  he  uttered  that  warning 
Mr.  Guggenheim  made  public  announcement  that  he  had  himself  been 
caught.  He  had  bought  a  famous  and  widely-talked-of  mine;  and 
when  he  discovered  he  had  been  deceived,  he  backed  out  of  the  trap 
at  a  cash  loss  of  $2,500,000." 

Facts  that  Read  Like  Fairy  Stories. — That  which  gives  zest  to  the 
psychology  of  business  is  the  wonderful  stories  that  agents  have  about  the 
marvelous  gains  of  men  who  have  entered  into  various  classes  of  enterprise. 
Some  of  them  read  like  fairy  stories.  It  is  often  said  that  more  gold  and 
silver  are  expended  in  the  quest  for  gold  and  silver  mines  than  is  taken 
out  of  them. 

As  a  rule,  corporations  are  not  satisfactory  unless  a  man  has  some 
voice  in  their  guidance.  The  mere  love  for  gain  becomes  very  sordid  when 
with  it  there  is  no  intelligent  direction  of  the  means  by  which  it  is  obtained. 
In  large  corporations  the  ordinary  stockholder  has  nothing  to  say.  He  may 
be  squeezed  out  in  time.  Some  of  these  companies  are  bona  fide  and  have 
a  pride  in  promoting  the  interest  of  their  stockholders.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  is  a  multitude  of  them  that  exploit  the  public  by  one  means  or 
another,  get  control  of  the  stock,  take  its  profits  sometimes  by  enormous 
salaries  which  are  paid  to  its  manager  and  directors.  They  regulate  the 
dividends  in  their  own  interest.  Such  are  often  the  dangers  of  new  cor- 
porate bodies  and  it  is,  of  course,  always  safer  to  invest  in  well  established 
companies.  I  quote  again  from  Collier's: 

"It  has  been  estimated  that  a  man  who,  in  the  early  nineties,  sub 
scribed  to  one  share  of  stock  in  Mr.  James  J.  Hill's  Great  Northern 
Railway  and  has  kept  it  ever  since,  has  made  in  the  intervening  fifteen 
years,  in  cash  dividends  and  'privileges',  a  profit  of  over  nine  hundred 
per  cent.  The  best  that  could  have  been  done  by  a  workman  on  Mr. 
Hill's  railroad,  who  put  his  earnings  in  a  savings  bank  for  the  same 
period,  would  be  less  than  one  hundred  per  cent.  Mr.  Forrest  F.  Dry- 
den,  a  son  of  the  President  of  the  Prudential  Insurance  Company, 
stated  under  oath  that  one  of  the  owners  of  that  company  who,  in  the 
late  seventies,  paid  in,  in  cash,  $2,200,  had  made  a  profit,  twenty-five 
years  later,  of  $327,163.60.  The  rate  of  profit  in  this  case  is  14,800 
per  cent — a  rate  which  must  seem  colossal  to  the  policy-holder  who 
has  taken  advantage  of  the  savings  feature  of  that  company  and 
bought  an  endowment  policy.  For  the  policy-holder  has  never  re- 
ceived as  much  as  four  per  cent." 


40  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

Talents  Sacrificed  for  Financial  Gain. — The  present  glamour  of  financial 
standing  in  the  world  is  leading  many  of  our  young  people  away  from 
those  careers  in  life  which  their  talents  best  fit  them  to  pursue.  Today  very 
many  of  the  very  best  teachers  we  have  in  the  Church  and  State  are  leaving 
the  school  room  because  of  "financial  inducement."  Our  political  system 
does  not  repay  our  highest  and  best  talent.  Many  of  our  young  men  would 
make  most  competent  physicians  and  surgeons,  attorneys,  agriculturists, 
and  stock  men,  and  thus  benefit  the  world  by  reason  of  their  superior  pro- 
ductive powers.  They  do  not  respond  to  their  inborn  qualities  of  life. 
The  love  of  money  compels  them  to  bury  their  God-given  talents.  Again 
from  Collier's: 

"Recently  a  young  and  successful  banker  withdrew  from  his  firm 
to  accept  an  appointment  as  an  assistant  in  a  department  in  our  oldest 
university.  The  banking  career,  of  course,  would  have  been  vastly 
more  remunerative  in  money.  Moreover,  the  bank  was  a  family  insti- 
tution, and  there  was  every  inclination  of  pride  and  tradition  against 
leaving  it.  It  strikes  us  as  a  fine  thing  to  have  done.  Possibly  we 
would  all  be  better  off  if  business  in  this  country  were  less  remunera- 
tive as  compared  with  other  careers.  If  business  did  not  offer  a  re- 
ward so  vastly  greater  in  money,  young  men  choosing  their  careers 
would  feel  more  free  to  follow  their  natural  talents  toward  the  arts  or 
toward  other  careers.  One  of  the  most  successful  bankers  in  the 
United  States  would  have  been  a  very  great  musician  if  he  had  felt 
free  to  follow  his  tastes.  In  spite  of  the  disparity  of  the  money  re- 
wards, more  and  more  men  are  realizing  that  money  is  not  to  be 
weighed  against  what  President  Eliot  once  called  'the  durable  satisfac- 
tions of  life.'  Among  these  durable  satisfactions,  congeniality  of  work 
is  one  of  the  most  important." 

It  is  unfortunately  true  that  men  have  lost  much  of  the  spirit  of  stew- 
ardship. They  do  not  hold  in  trust  as  those  responsible  to  God  for 
beneficent  use  of  means  at  their  command,  and  there  are  direct  tempta- 
tions in  financial  enterprise  that  are  too  severe  for  many  to  overcome. 

Revelations. — "Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  wo  be  unto  him  that  lieth 
to  deceive,  because  he  supposeth  that  another  lieth  to  deceive,  for  such  are 
not  exempt  from  the  justice  of  God"  (Doc.  and  Cov.  10:28). 

"And  again,  I  will  give  unto  you  a  pattern  in  all  things,  that  ye  may 
not  be  deceived,  for  Satan  is  abroad  in  the  land,  and  he  goeth  forth  de- 
ceiving the  nations"  (Doc.  and  Cov.  52:14). 


XVII— Survival  of  the  Fittest 

A  Fallacy. — Much  has  been  written  and  said  about  the  survival  of  the 
fittest,  as  though  men  were  an  exact  counterpart  of  nature,  even  in  the 
exercise  of  his  free  agency.  It  is  doubtful,  even  in  the  animal  and  the 
vegetable  world,  whether  it  is  true  that  the  fittest  always  survive,  because 
life  is  subject  to  such  a  variety  of  conditions  that  what  is  the  fittest  depends 
after  all  upon  a  multitude  of  conditions  so  complex  that  we  cannot  say 
really  that  anything  living  will  survive.  In  the  case  of  man  it  is  really 
less  true,  because  man  has  his  locomotion  and  agency,  so  that  he  may 
change  his  conditions  and  place  himself  from  time  to  time  in  such  environ- 
ments as  make  for  his  advantage  or  disadvantage  in  the  world. 

A  Simple  Example. — Some  time  ago  the  writer,  who  has  been  occupied 
in  the  sheep  industry  for  some  time,  during  a  severe  storm  at  the  lambing 
season,  undertook  so  to  place  his  sheep  as  to  suffer  the  smallest  possible 
loss.  The  older  and  larger  ones  were  placed  where  they  were  compelled  to 
take  the  brunt  of  the  storm,  in  the  hope  that  they  had  vitality  enough  to 
withstand  it.  The  weaker  and  younger  ones  were  given  a  securer  place 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  41 

within  the  sheds,  and  thus  the  lambs  were  prepared  at  night  within  for  the 
storm  that  was  raging  without.  In  the  morning  the  oldest  and  strongest 
had  suffered  the  greatest  loss.  Among  the  weakest  only  one  or  two  died. 
The  survival  here  was  not  a  question  of  the  fittest.  It  was  a  question  of 
environment,  of  human  protection.  The  survival  of  the  fittest  presupposes 
equalities  of  opportunities,  of  environments,  of  conditions  that  do  not  exist 
in  either  animal  or  human  life.  And  so,  if  we  speak  of  the  survival  of  the 
fittest,  we  are  bound  to  make  so  many  explanations,  so  many  exceptions, 
that  the  rule  becomes  practically  worthless  as  a  working  principle. 

Survival  of  the  Fittest  in  War. — There  is  just  now  going  on  in  the  world 
a  war  of  unparalleled  human  destruction.  It  is  pointed  to  as  an  illustra- 
tion, as  a  pitiful  evidence  that  the  best  in  our  national  life  is  sacrificed,  and 
that  the  world,  after  the  war,  will  be  made  up  of  those  less  fitted  to  assume 
family,  social,  and  national  responsibilities.  It  is  doubtful,  even  in  the  case 
of  war,  that  the  fittest  are  killed  off  because  the  best  of  our  physical  man- 
hood is  called  into  the  conflict. 

A  Definition  of  the  Fittest.— Who  can  really  say  what  the  fittest  in  life 
is?  Usually  the  statement  is  made  from  the  standpoint  of  our  physical 
being.  Let  us  take  an  example:  Two  young  men  entering  manhood  possess 
different  physical  qualifications  at  the  same  age  of  life.  One  is  powerful, 
has  known  no  sickness  from  his  infancy,  and  in  his  body  the  functions  of 
life  are  healthy  and  strong.  The  other  has  been  somewhat  frail;  he  has 
started  life  handicapped  by  pain,  suffering,  and  imperfect  conditions  of  his 
body.  He  has,  however,  been  compelled  to  take  care  of  himself.  He  has 
been  cautious  in  his  diet,  in  his  habits,  and  strong  in  his  moral  attitude  to 
life.  There  is  no  question  about  which  of  the  two  the  world  would  con- 
sider the  fitter.  The  former  may  plunge  into  excesses,  may  feel  contempt 
for  human  weakness,  and  be  indifferent  to  moral  rectitude.  But  he  starts 
out  with  great  physical  powers.  In  time  they  are  sure  to  be  undermined. 
His  life  becomes  sinful  and  his  "children's  teeth  are  on  edge  because  the 
father  hath  eaten  sour  grapes."  How  shall  human  wisdom  determine  whiclr 
is  the  fitter  of  the  two  when  the  one  that  was  handicapped  at  the  beginning 
leads  an  exemplary  life  and  makes  good  what  he  lacked  at  the  beginning, 
and  his  children  perhaps  inherit  the  blessings  of  a  correct  living  that  has 
made  him  in  the  long  race  of  life  the  more  successful  of  the  two? 

Inheritance  under  the  Rule. — We  take  the  ground  that  our  birth  is  not 
our  beginning.  We  come  into  the  world  with  certain  inheritances,  and 
though  we  come  into  the  world  often  poorly  equipped,  yet  we  come  with 
a  moral  inheritance  that  puts  us  on  the  upward  grade,  and  we  may  ascend 
by  force  of  correct  living  in  the  physical  scale  of  well-being.  The  whole 
matter,  however,  is  so  complex  that  it  is  difficult  to  say  who  are  and  who 
are  not  the  fittest. 

But  the  theory  is  bad  from  the  fact  that  the  word  is  taken  to  apply  to 
our  physical  well-being,  coupled  with  our  intellectual  attainments.  These 
two  parts  of  our  natures  are  held  up  as  the  most  important  things  in  life. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  are  both  highly  dependent  upon  our  moral  natures. 
It  may  be  that  our  intellectuality  will  persist  for  two  or  three  generations 
in  spite  of  weakened  moral  natures,  but  in  the  end  morality  must  win  over 
both  the  intellectual  and  the  physical  life  of  man. 

Bad  Effect  of  the  Theory. — The  theory  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  is  an 
effect  as  well  as  a  cause.  It  is  the  effect  of  swollen  pride,  of  the  belief  of 
certain  classes  of  people  in  the  world  that  the  superior  advantages  which 
they  enjoy  are  the  result  of  their  superior  natures  and  greater  abilities, 
whereas  they  may  have  been  the  result  largely  of  environment.  The  theory 
is  bad  because  it  is  applied  chiefly  to  our  physical  lives,  as  though  our 
physical  well-being  were  the  most  momentous  question  of  a  man's  conduct 
in  the  world.  It  is  so  easy  to  undermine  our  physical  lives,  to  make  them 
abortive  and  ruinous  not  only  to  ourselves,  but  to  our  posterity,  that  physical 


42  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

values  are  after  all  not  so  important  as  we  too  often  imagine.  A  man  may 
be  physically  fit  today  and  physically  ruined  tomorrow,  because  behind  him 
and  about  him  there  was  no  moral  rectitude  to  support  the  physical  ad- 
vantages which  he  enjoyed. 

The  theory  is  also  bad  because  it  permits  men  to  drift;  it  robs  them  of 
that  effort  which  men  in  their  weakness  feel  that  they  must  put  forward. 

The  Battle  of  Life. — "The  race  is  not  to  the  swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the 
strong,  but  to  him  that  endureth  to  the  end."  Such  is  the  teaching  of  our 
religion,  which  is  striving  constantly  so  to  fortify  man's  moral  nature  as 
to  make  man  a  self-improved  being.  Such  doctrine  presupposes  human 
weakness  and  the  inclination  of  human  beings  to  sinful  lives.  Such  a  re- 
ligion aims  to  establish  character  in  mind,  something  that  will  endure 
from  one  generation  to  another,  something  upon  which  posterity  may  build 
an  enduring  structure. 

The  followers  of  Christ  were  frequently  the  blind,  the  lame,  and  the 
halt.  He  sarcastically  reminds  his  critics  that  those  who  are  well  have  no 
need  of  a  physician.  Those  who  had  survived,  as  the  fittest,  might  die  in 
their  own  conceit.  And  what  became  of  those  pharisaical  people  in  Christ's 
time  vrho  boasted  of  their  superiority?  They  passed  away,  while  the  fol- 
lowers of  Christ  survived  and  brought  down  through  their  generations  to  us 
something  of  the  character  and  quality  of  a  Christian  life.  Which  were  the 
fittest?  That  is  a  question  of  divine  judgment.  Let  us  ask  our  descendants, 
our  children  and  our  children's  children,  and  their  children  after  them. 
We  do  not  stand  for  ourselves  so  much  as  we  stand  for  future  generations. 

The  Calling  of  the  Saints. — The  calling  of  the  Latter-day  Saints  is  that 
of  a  .chosen  people.  Their  important  mission  is  not  simply  the  physical 
advantages  of  a  single  generation;  their  mission  is  that  of  procreation,  the 
duty  to  give  to  the  world  the  best  in  physical  manhood  and  womanhood,  not 
simply  something  that  shall  survive.  We  are  not  trusting  to  our  survival; 
we  are  planning  for  the  triumph  of  that  right  living  that  shall  give  to  our 
descendants  a  higher  and  better  life  than  that  which  we  possess.  Survival 
is  a  bad  conception  of  our  place  in  the  world.  It  is  growth,  progress,  all  in 
the  direction  of  the  fulfilment  of  a  mission  to  be  God's  chosen  people. 


XVUI—The  New  Education 

Crumbling  of  Our  Old  Educational  Systems. — Will  our  modern  system 
of  education  be  also  shot  to  pieces?  While  the  great  guns  on  the  battle- 
fields are  tearing  up  the  earth  in  the  most  terrible  manner,  the  forces  behind 
them  are  at  work  everywhere  in  our  social  structure.  Great  wars  make 
great  changes,  and  there  are  ample  evidences  that  new  educational  demands 
will  soon  be  made  upon  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  If  changes  come  there 
must  be  a  breaking  up  of  our  modern  system.  What  is  wrong  with  it  will 
be  revealed  in  the  great  emergencies  that  confront  the  world  today.  They 
are  testing  out  the  fortress  of  man  for  new  responsibilities.  We  must  think 
of  education  in  the  making  and  stability  of  man,  and  in  his  preparedness 
for  the  emergencies  and  rapid  changes  that  are  overtaking  the  world  today. 
What  have  we  found  wanting  in  our  present  world  demand  for  the  high 
level  of  efficiency?  First  of  all  we  are  reminded  that  we  are  physically 
unfit.  We  must,  according  to  present  estimates,  examine  2,500,000  men  to 
raise  an  army  of  500,000.  It  did  not  require  a  war  to  bring  home  to  us  the 
fact  that  there  has  been  for  a  loug  time  a  deterioration  in  our  physical  man- 
hood. Not  long  since  we  had  forced  upon  our  notice  that  there  was  a 
great  increase  in  the  death  of  men  along  about  the  ages  of  from  45  to  50. 
It  speaks  of  a  race  rapidly  run. 

Physical  Side  of  Education. — The  city  is  gathering  into  its  great  mael- 
strom of  vice  an  ever  increasing  percentage  of  youth  who  seek  employment 
of  a  genial  nature,  employment  as  free  from  physical  toil  as  possible.  Vice, 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  43 

impure  atmospheric  conditions,  and  ease,  are  making  great  inroads  into  the 
physical  powers  of  life.  It  is  the  business  of  education  to  give  the  proper 
direction  to  life.  Our  educators  seem  to  think  that  if  they  give  a  young 
man  a  start  he  will  keep  on  going.  Do  they  help  him  to  move  along  the 
road  of  his  permanent  well-being,  or  do  they  simply  give  him  a  vision  of 
things  that  he  may  think  about  or  talk  about  without  doing  them?  Educa- 
tors are  forever  focusing  the  eyes  of  the  youth  upon  the  pages  of  a  book, 
till  they  not  only  force  an  ever  increasing  number  to  wear  glasses,  but 
actually  force  them  more  and  more  to  see  by  the  vision  of  others. 

Evils  of  Our  Present  System. — Not  long  since  I  picked  up  a  so-called 
curricula  of  studies  for  our  public  schools.  It  contained  thirteen  subjects 
to  be  taught  to  children  under  fourteen  years  of  age.  What  a  lot  of  super- 
ficial dabblers  our  schools  must  turn  out  in  an  age  of  intensive  application! 
If  you  object,  you  are  told  that  the  law  makes  it  so.  Who  made  the  law? 
It  was  put  through  by  our  legislators.  But  who  told  our  legislators  it  was 
what  we  really  needed?  A  bill  was  deferentially  put  into  their  hands  by 
some  committee  of  school  men.  Who  are  these  school  men?  They  are 
those  who  have  studied  books  during  all  the  years  of  their  youth,  and  in 
manhood  went  back  to  teach  from  the  same  books  with  which  they  had  been 
educated.  The  people  have  grown  to  think  that  what  our  educators  recom- 
mend must  be  for  the  best  good  of  our  children.  It  is  just  as  if  we  started 
out  to  make  all  our  children  school  teachers.  Only  a  few  become  such,  and 
the  great  masses  of  them  are  thrown  out  into  the  struggle  of  life  after  they 
had  been  fitted  not  for  what  they  really  have  to  do,  but  for  the  things  they 
rarely  think  about  after  they  leave  the  school  room.  If  we  further  object, 
we  are  sagely  counseled  that  the  real  mission  of  education  is  culture,  an 
intellectual  refinement. 

Culture. — Some  years  ago  a  number  of  young  men  knocked  at  the  doors 
of  Harvard  University  for  admittance.  They  were  duly  referred  to  a  dean 
who  would  pass  upon  their  entrance.  In  assigning  the  young  men  to  their 
work,  one  of  them  asked  about  some  "cultural"  subject.  The  dean  was 
unsympathetic,  and  told  them  plainly  what  he  thought  of  culture.  He  was  a 
man  of  affairs  who  had  been  in  active  life  and  knew  something  of  what  men 
really  needed  in  a  partical  world.  To  emphasize  his  point  he  related  the 
following  story  of  two  farmers.  "These  men,"  said  he,  "had  met  one  day 
at  a  partition  fence  between  their  farms  to  talk.  One  addressing  the  other, 
asked  John  what  culture  was;  'these  people  going  up  to  Arlington  for  a 
summer  outing  are  always  talking  about  culture.  They  say,  he's  cultured, 
she's  cultured,  and  oh  my,  how  I  do  love  culture!  What  do  they  mean?' 
'Well,  you  know  what  wheat  culture  and  potato  culture  is,  don't  you?'  came 
the  prompt  reply.  'If  you  take  out  the  wheat  and  the  potatoes,  then  you 
have  culture.' " 

The  story  had  a  very  pronounced  effect.  Some  effort  has  been  made 
along  the  line  of  industrial  training  in  recent  years,  but  there  has  been  a 
constant  opposition  to  any  suggestion  that  such  a  training  should  bear  any 
relationship  to  a  trade-school.  In  agricultural  training,  men  fit  themselves, 
more  frequently  for  a  position  in  private  or  governmental  employment 
rather  than  for  the  farm,  thus  keeping  theory  and  practice  as  far  apart  as 
possible. 

A  Suggestion. — A  change  is  certain  to  come.  It  would  be  hazardous  to 
prophesy  just  what  that  change  will  be.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  at  some 
future  time  we  may  witness  a  school  something  on  the  following  plan:  Let 
us  imagine  a  school  on  a  10,000  acre  tract  of  land  divided  into  lots  of  from 
five  to  twenty  acres  each.  These  lots  might  be  set  apart  for  the  growth  of 
wheat,  alfalfa,  fruit,  sugar  beets  and  a  variety  of  other  farm  and  orchard 
products.  In  the  center  of  the  farm  could  be  located  administration  and 
school  buildings.  About  the  farm  could  be  located  houses  for  the  boys  and 
barns  for  live  stock.  Here  each  boy,  upon  entering  the  school,  would  be 
assigned  to  a  lot  according  to  the  class  of  industry  preferred  by  him  and 


44  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

his  parents.  Under  a  skilful  teacher  he  would  begin  his  work  at  the  school 
farm  in  such  a  practical  way  as  to  make  him  master  of  the  kind  of  work 
he  had  chosen.  If  he  raised  beets  a  certain  share  would  be  turned  over 
to  him  as  a  remuneration,  and  the  balance  kept  by  the  school  for  its 
support.  During  a  number  of  successive  years  he  would  change  from  one 
lot  to  another  and  thus  acquire  special  knowledge  in  fruit  raising,  animal 
industry,  or  farming.  Certain  hours  of  the  day  he  might  receive  class 
instruction  from  seed  time  to  harvest  along  the  lines  of  his  professional 
work.  In  winter  the  school  room  would  be  open  to  him  where,  during 
certain  hours  of  the  day,  he  would  enjoy  scholastic  and  manual  training. 
Such  a  school  might  be  confined  to  summer  work  and  the  boy  return  to 
his  home  for  the  regular  school,  provided  always  that  manual  training  be 
a  compulsory  part  of  his  education.  His  physical  upkeep  would  thus  be 
assured,  and  the  artificial  training  in  a  gymnasium  would  be  eliminated. 

A  Change  Needed. — Another  reformation  that  is  likely  to  come  is  the 
introduction  of  men  of  affairs  into  the  preparation  of  our  school  curricula. 
They  should  not  be  left  entirely  to  school  teachers.  Such  a  body  of  men 
might  well  act  as  a  sifting  committee  in  all  work  to  be  submitteed  to  the  leg- 
islature, and  to  be  adopted  by  school  superintendents  for  the  use  of  schools. 
We  must  educate  into  life,  not  away  from  it.  Too  much  time  is  given  to 
books  and  too  little  to  the  practical  side  of  our  natures.  From  the  age  of 
twelve,  half  the  training  should  be  on  a  school  farm  and  only  half  the  time 
in  the  school  rooms.  Life  in  action  should  be  the  aim  of  all  our  education. 

Our  young  people  enter  the  public  school  at  the  age  of  six.  At  about 
fifteen  they  pass  into  the  high  school,  and  at  about  twenty  into  the  university, 
where  they  remain  till  they  are  twenty-four.  Then,  if  they  want  a  pro- 
fessional training,  they  take  four  or  five  years  abroad.  At  thirty  they  take 
up  the  real  work  of  life.  They  really  begin  life  too  late.  The  business  or 
economic  side  of  life  has  been  wholly  neglected.  As  they  naturally  become 
leaders  of  thought  they  are  poorly  equipped  for  the  practical  leadership  of 
those  whom  they  greatly  influence.  Our  peculiar  system  of  state  education 
eliminates  religious  instruction  which  is  after  all  the  basis  of  moral  force. 
Education  is  not  simply  a  business  that  has  to  do  with  the  intellectual  side 
of  life.  To  supplement  our  imperfect  methods,  the  Latter-day  Saints  have 
introduced  the  religion  class  movement  where  children  after  regular  school 
hours  may  receive  instruction  in  religion  and  morals.  There  is  a  new 
awakening  to  the  fact  that  our  youth  are  deficient  in  spiritual  insight.  All 
the  God-given  attributes  of  man's  life  must  be  cultivated  if  he  is  to  fulfil 
the  law  of  his  creation. 

It  is  further  a  fact  that  our  schools  are  making  dangerous  inroad  into 
the  nervous  energy  of  our  young  people.  Whether  nervous  energy  is  lack- 
ing in  them,  or  whether  the  call  upon  their  energy  is  too  great,  the  fact  re- 
mains the  same.  Our  educational  system  grinds  all  children  alike  through 
the  same  mill,  because  the  system  has  become  a  machine  that  must  work  at 
a  given  speed. 

Revelation  of  God  to  Joseph  Smith. — "That  whoso  having  knowledge, 
have  I  not  commanded  to  repent?"  (Doc.  and  Cov.  29:49). 

It  is  devoutly  to  be  wished  that  some  of  our  educators  having  knowl- 
edge would  repent. 

"And  truth  is  knowledge  of  things  as  they  are,  and  as  they  were,  and 
as  they  are  to  come"  (Doc.  and  Cov.  93:24). 

The  words  are  put  in  italics  by  the  writer  to  accent  the  value  of  the 
knowledge  of  things.  We  prattle  too  much  about  ideals  that  have  little 
reality  in  them.  The  slogan  of  our  educators  is  ambition  for  those  intellec- 
tual refinements  which  relate  more  to  the  speculative  side  of  life,  than  to  the 
useful  and  practical. 

"And  if  a  person  gains  more  knowledge  and  intelligence  in  this  life 
through  his  diligence  and  obedince  than  anothr  he  will  have  so  much  the 
advantage  in  the  world  to  come"  (Doc.  and  Cov.  130:19). 

We  believe  in  the  eternal  value  of  things,  a  knowledge  we  may  take 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  45 

with  us  to  another  world,  a  world  in  which  we  shall  work,  and  not  sit  and 
fold  our  hands  and  sing  forever.  "Faith  without  works  is  dead,"  so  is  knowl- 
edge. 


XIX.— The  Home 

Abandonment. — Of  all  the  old  fashioned  homes  of  the  past  generation 
it  would  be  interesting  to  know  what  percentage  is  left,  homes  devoted  to 
domestic  industry  and  child  life.  Even  the  difference  would  not  be  so  start- 
ling as  the  present  movement  to  vacate  home  life.  Word  comes  to  us 
through  public  print,  which  is  confirmed  by  individual  observation,  that  in 
the  great  cities  of  the  world  the  beautiful  homes  of  the  well-to-do  along 
charming  boulevards  are  empty  because  their  inmates  have  abandoned  them 
for  hotel  life.  They  were  already  devoid  of  child  life,  whose  pleasures 
would  have  made  them  interesting  as  well  as  habitable.  The  Latter-day 
Saints,  whose  religious  duty  makes  home  life  an  obligation  as  well  as  a  joy, 
little  realize  what  the  abandonment  of  the  home  means  to  the  world  at  large. 
They  hardly  sense  the  change  of  this  part  of  our  social  structure.  World 
temptations  will  come  to  them  with  such  striking  force  that  many  of  them 
may  find  them  quite  overpowering.  Against  this  and  other  insidious  changes 
that  the  new  age  is  bringing,  they  must  brace  themselves  as  if  for  a  con- 
flict in  which  they  may  lose.  Too  many  will  not  believe  the  dangers  till 
the  jolt  of  a  breakdown  jars  them  by  its  destruction  to  their  senses. 

God  Speaks. — A  great  struggle  is  on  in  the  world,  and  our  troubles 
will  not  end  with  the  war.  There  are  more  terrible  dangers  ahead  of  us. 
Why  do  we  not  proclaim  these  dangers  from  the  house  tops?  Why  do  we 
not  tell  the  people  at  home  what  it  all  means?  Do  we  not  instinctively  feel 
by  the  spirit  that  has  instilled  itself  into  our  lives  for  nearly  a  century  that 
the  day  of  which  God  hath  spoken  is  near.  Why  do  we  not  speak  aloud, 
and  not  move  in  silence  in  the  presence  of  such  catastrophes  as  are  threat- 
ening the  whole  world?  It  is  because  we  feel  that  God  has  the  platform, 
that  it  becomes  us  to  remain  silent  in  the  midst  of  his  great  judgments 
which  the  world  has  insisted  on  bringing  upon  itself.  In  the  din  of  social 
uproar  and  confusion  the  world  could  not,  would  not,  stop  to  listen,  would 
not  heed  his  voice  when  he  had  spoken.  "Let  the  sin  be  upon  us  and  our 
children"  were  the  sentiments  of  those  who  defied  God  and  crucified  the 
Savior. 

We  need  not  feel  surprised  that  in  the  raging  conflict  of  social  destruc- 
tion one  of  the  earliest  of  God  ordained  institutions  for  the  perpetuation 
of  life  and  happiness — the  home — should  be  threatened  with  annihilation 
in  the  great  upheavals  of  the  age.  Is  it  all  pessimism  and  despair  when  we 
draw  in  such  dark  coloring  a  world  threatened  and  going  to  ruin?  History 
and  life  teach  us  that  only  an  infinitesimal  part  of  sin  is  revealed  to  the  pub- 
lic eye.  If  what  we  see  is  full  of  evil,  what  must  be  the  secret,  hidden  con- 
ditions of  life.  If  what  we  see  annoys  us,  how  would  we  feel  if  God  per- 
mitted us  to  see  it  all.  We  are  wholly  incompetent  to  judge,  but  we  may 
listen  and  speak  of  the  things  which  God  has  declared.  We  have  eyes  to 
see  and  ears  to  hear  the  things  that  are  flagrant.  One  of  the  great  dangers  to 
the  home  is  the  deterioration  of  the  body.  What  is  the  evidence  of  com- 
petent witnesses  in  the  courts  of  public  opinion?  Listen  to  the  evidence  of 
one  of  America's  greatest  physicians,  Dr.  Howard:  "Wom-n  don't  take  ca're 
of  themselves  in  regard  to  the  changes  of  weather.  They  don't  get  proper 
food.  They  overeat,  and  nowadays  more  and  more  of  them  overdrink  and 
over  smoke." 

Some  one  has  said  that  the  way  to  a  man's  heart  is  through  his  stomach, 
but  this  is  much  more  true  of  women.  The  box  of  candy  is  one  of  the  most 
acceptable  strangles  of  courtship. 

Effects  of  Home  Abandonment. — Take  any  of  the  big  restaurants;  who 
fill  them?  They  are  crowded  with  women  at  the  lunch  hour.  Crowded 


46  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

with  the  same  sex  at  4  p.  m.  for  tea  and  sweetmeats.  At  the  dinner  hour 
and  again  after  the  theatre  the  restaurants  are  crowded  again.  There  are 
now  men  with  the  women.  We  compare  what  is  eaten  in  these  places  of 
mixed  patronage  with  what  is  eaten  in  places  exclusively  patronized  by  men, 
and  we'll  find  proof  of  the  contention  that  it  is  the  women  who  overeat, 
and  overeat  heavy,  indigestible  food. 

"This  over  indulgence,  I  believe,  is  one  of  the  grave  evils  of  the  day, 
at  any  rate,  here  in  America.  It  is  bad  for  the  present  generation,  and  bad 
for  the  coming  generation.  We  molly-coddle  our  women  too  much.  We 
have  let  them  live  too  long  in  a  steam  heated  atmosphere. 

"Some  may  object  that  I  am  putting  undue  emphasis  upon  the  physical. 
But  these  objectors  must  remember  that  mental  and  moral  man  gets  his 
strength  and  efficiency  only  from  the  physical  man.  Nature  has  no  use  for 
sickness.  And  remember  that  the  greatest  struggle  for  existence  that  the 
world  has  ever  seen  is  going  to  begin  when  Verdun  has  passed  into  history. 
'If  women  could  acquire  the  physical  strength  and  could  be  disciplined — 
(make  note  of  that)  and  could  be  disciplined — they  would  dominate  the 
earth.  I  believe  it  would  be  easier  for  them  to  acquire  the  necessary 
strength  than  for  them  to  subject  themselves  to  the  necessary  discipline." 

From  such  an  indictment  it  is  easy  to  believe  that  women  are  in  not 
much  better  position  to  maintain  a  salutary  home  life  than  men.  From  al- 
most every  angle  at  which  we  look  at  home  life  there  are  to  be  seen  serious 
symptoms  of  its  decay. 

Nowadays  so  many  children  are  born  out  of  the  home,  and  left  en- 
tirely to  the  care  of  mothers,  that  the  element  of  mental  life  is  constantly 
decreasing.  The  unmarried  mother  is  not  a  disturbing  factor  here,  as  it  is 
in  many  European  countries.  However,  there  is  a  growing  disinclination 
everywhere  to  hold  girls  to  the  same  accountability  as  there  was  a  few 
years  back.  Today  the  unmarried  mother  is  becoming  more  and  more  a 
pioblem  to  society.  From  the  Chicago  Sunday  Herald  of  August  26,  1917, 
I  quote  the  following:  "The  unmarried  mother  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have 
won  the  approval  of  the  modern  world,  but  at  least  she  is  not  greeted  with 
the  fury  accorded  her  predecessors." 

Illegitimacy. — Dr.  Werner  of  Columbia  University  recalls  the  fact  that 
before  the  present  war  there  were  born  in  Germany  177,000  illegitimate 
children  annually ;  in  France,  80,000 ;  in  England,  38,000 ;  in  Sweden,  18,000 ; 
in  little  Norway,  5,000.  In  American  cities  the  illegitimate  birthrate  is  said 
to  be  about  3  percent  of  the  total,  but  this  is  counterbalanced  by  the  high 
divorce  rate  of  one  divorce  to  every  twelve  marriages. 

"Illegitimacy  is  now  not  only  widespread,  but  a  general  effort  is 
being  made  to  eliminate  the  disgrace  which  attaches  to  the  unmarried 
mother  and  to  her  child." 

"The  Norwegian  law  of  1915,  which  aimed  at  giving  every  legit- 
imate child  two  legal  parents,  inspired  the  recent  Illinois  attempt  to 
deal  with  the  situation.  During  1913  France  repealed  the  hard  Na- 
poleonic edict,  which  forbade  all  investigation  into  the  paternity  of 
children  born  out  of  wedlock. 

"The  same  social  feeling  itself  in  the  abolition  of  the  Austrian 
law,  through  which  illegitimate  children  were  excluded  from  family 
and  relationship  rights.  The  Muttershutz  movement  in  Germany, 
and  in  Scandinavia,  attempted  in  various  legal  ways  to  accomplish  a 
similar  end.  The  modern  world  is  intent  upon  lessening  the  hardships 
which  unmarried  mothers  so  long  endured." 

The  cruelties  which  aroused  the  protests  of  the  men  who  saw  the 
American  revolution  were,  however,  but  a  heritage  of  a  more  terrible 
time.  Simple  decapitation  was  considered  a  merciful  punishment.  Unmar- 
ried mothers  were  sometimes  condemned  to  die  on  a  bed  of  thorns.  If 
the  mother  killed  her  child  she  was  buried  alive  or  drowned  in  a  sack.  If 
the  child  lived  she  had  to  undergo  a  humiliating  church  penance. 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  47 

Finally  the  world  was  aroused,  and  gradually  the  most  savage  forms  of 
punishment  were  relinquished.  The  old  laws  were  repealed,  and  toward  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  homes  of  refuge  and  maternity  houses 
began  to  appear  in  Europe  testifying  to  the  gradual  approach  of  what  we 
hope  is  a  humane  civilization.  In  parts  of  Europe  today  the  government 
provides  by  law  for  the  limitation  of  children  by  what  is  called  a  homeless 
process.  Austria  was  not  mentioned  in  the  table  above  given,  but  it  is  said 
by  public  journalists  that  fully  forty  percent  of  its  children  are  illegitimate. 
New  York  has  recently  been  wrestling  with  the  question  of  child  birth  con- 
trol.  A  prominent  woman  was  sent  to  prison  because  of  her  propaganda  on 
that  subject.  The  doctors  had  the  question  before  them  for  discussion  and 
were  divided  on  it. 

In  modern  cities  the  movement  from  homes  to  apartment  houses  has 
increased  very  rapidly  within  the  past  decade.  Restaurants  have  greatly 
multiplied  because  of  the  increasing  number  of  women  to  whom  housekeep- 
ing has  become  an  unbearable  drudgery.  Domestic  science  taught  in  our 
schools  is  not  able  to  stay  the  movement  "'away  from  the  home."  All  these 
conditions  are  merely  symptoms  of  a  disease  which  is  consuming  home  life. 
The  situation  is  becoming  so  serious  that  thoughtful  men  are  beginning  to 
ask,  "Is  the  home  doomed?" 

Dangers  Outside  the  Home. — The  sex  instinct  is  a  dominating  force  in 
all  social  life.  It  does  not  decrease  and  there  is  positive  evidence  that  it  is 
growing  stronger.  Will  its  legitimate  exercise  be  confined  as  it  properly 
should  be  to  the  home?  If  the  home  should  go  how  shall  this  instinct  be 
regulated?  Will  it  be  regulated  at  all?  Will  its  exercise  go  on  while  men 
and  women  occupy  separate  homes?  It  begins  to  look  as  if  illegitimate 
childbirth  would  not  only  be  protected  but  encouraged  as  an  effort  to  save 
the  race.  Would  it  be  a  less  serious  evil  than  race  suicide?  Approach  the 
subject  from  any  side  and  its  perplexities  increase.  It  seems  idle  to  talk  of 
any  other  form  of  marriage  than  monogamy.  How  could  men  be  induced 
to  marry  more  than  one  woman  when  they  refuse  the  responsibility  of  one 
wife?  It  is  a  characteristic  of  the  age  to  shirk  responsibility.  Men  laugh 
at  the  thought  of  "a  duty  to  marry."  In  the  eastern  cities  marriage  by  men 
before  they  have  reached  the  age  of  40  or  50  is  very  unpopular.  We  are 
told  that  men  often  marry  late  as  a  last  resort.  Such  marriages  too  often 
mean  childless  homes.  Women  resent  the  charge  that  they  are  responsible 
for  race  suicide.  They  stoutly  affirm  that  motherhood  is  after  all  the  dearest 
thing  to  a  woman's  heart.  Against  the  dangers  here  described  the  Latter- 
day  Saints  are  employing  every  means.  Something  must  be  done  to  save 
mankind  from  its  own  destruction.  The  destruction  of  12,000,000  men  to 
Europe  in  the  war,  compared  with  the  destruction  of  the  race  through 
avoidable  disease  and  prevention  of  life,  is  not  so  startling.  When  the  two 
p  ocesses  are  combined  it  is  not  difficult  to  forecast  the  doom  of  the  home. 
The  evils  of  present  conditions  are  not  so  menacing  to  the  present  generation 
ati  they  will  be  to  the  succeeding  ones.  However,  the  world  will  experience 
in  the  immediate  future  a  crisis  of  world  sorrows  and  losses  that  will  bring 
home  to  it  universal  calamities.  There  is  too  much  of  a  French  king's  con- 
solation that  things  "will  last  our  day."  Today  we  are  confronted  with  the 
most  wicked  indifference  to  future  generations.  We  seem  to  care  absolutely 
nothing  about  the  future.  The  sense  of  duty  is  being  lost  to  the  human 
race.  How  can  the  world  hope  to  escape  punishment  for  the  sins  of  its 
own  age? 

Home  a  Burden. — Complaint  is  often  made  through  public  print  that 
there  is  a  growing  calousness  on  the  part  of  parents  toward  their  children. 
They  appear  too  often  willing  to  part  with  them  rather  than  with  social 
pleasures  with  which  children  interfere.  I  pick  up,  as  I  write,  the  Chicago 
Sunday  Tribune  of  August  26,  1917:  "The  Miller  family  Wants  to  get  rid  of 
their  baby,"  says  the  paper.  "Two  weeks  ago  the  parents  applied  to  the 
court  for  leave  to  place  their  child  for  adoption,  giving  as  a  reason  that 
they  were  unable  to  care  for  him,  and  also  wanted  to  go  to  their  home  in 


48  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

Wausau,  Wis.  Mr.  Miller  said  he  is  the  son  of  a  dentist  in  Wausau.  He  is 
employed  in  the  wholesale  establishment  of  Marshall  Field  &  Co.,  at  $12.00 
a  week."  They  were  severely  reprimanded  and  decided  to  keep  their  child. 
Such  conduct  is  a  question  of  pleasure  versus  the  home.  What  is  the  love  for 
home  life?  The  testimony  is  quite  general  that  it  is  vanishing. 


XX.— Woman's  World 

Alarming  Changes. — There  is  in  rapid  progress  the  creation  of  a  new 
world  for  women.  It  has  not  been  brought  entirely  by  the  war.  Her 
grievances  date  back  many  years,  for  she  has  long  felt  certain  inequalities 
with  men  which  she  has  been  striving  for  decades  to  overcome.  The  war 
has  helped  her  into  a  wider  circle  of  employment,  but  she  heretofore  has 
been  extending  her  activities  in  new  fields,  and  the  farther  she  has  gone 
the  greater  demands  she  has  made  for  improved  opportunties.  The  po- 
sition she  plans  for  the  future  will  not  be  won  without  strong  resistance. 
In  political  life  she  sees  a  means  to  a  higher  aim  than  office.  It  is  in  the 
industrial  world  where  she  feels  an  unjust  discrimination  and  a  wrong. 
Politics  might  help  her,  but  it  will  not  remove  the  evil  she  seeks  to  cure. 
Political  opportunities  do  not  furnish  a  world  at  all  large  enough  for  her 
activities.  They  may  help  her,  that  is  all.  There  are  two  chief  obstructions 
to  her  industrial  progress.  One  is  public  sentiment;  the  other  her  own  sex. 
For  centuries  there  has  been  thrown  about  her  an  exclusiveness  which  con- 
fined her  services  mostly  to  the  home.  In  European  countries,  where  she  is 
employed  more  in  outdoor  life  she  is  confined  to  the  family  circle.  Grad- 
ually, in  the  nineteenth  century  she  began  factory  life,  then  store  life,  sep- 
arating herself  more  and  more  from  domestic  pursuits.  In  each  industrial 
step  she  has  been  met  by  the  objection  that  she  was  out  of  her  sphere.  In 
each  step,  too,  she  has  met  temptations  that  have  undoubtedly  told  against 
her  moral  well-being.  Public  sentiment  would  balk  today  at  women  street 
car  conductors,  motormen,  hotel  porters  and  all  forms  of  employment  that 
bring  her  into  indiscriminate  contact  with  men.  The  law  might  not  prohibit 
her,  but  she  would  lack  the  support  of  the  public  sentiment  which  would 
assist  her  in  claiming  the  same  remuneration  as  men.  Then  there  are  pa- 
rental objections,  and  disfavor  of  friends  and  relatives.  Public  pressure 
has  been  too  great  for  her,  however  willing  she  may  be.  A  fundamental 
power  in  all  our  social  institutions  is  public  sentiment.  Many  things  might 
be  done,  and  some  would  perhaps  be  done,  were  it  not  for  social  disfavor. 
Such  prejudice  has  been  built  up  for  centuries  and  it  is  not  easily  thrown 
down,  even  when  all  reason  for  its  continuation  ceases  to  exist.  Such 
sentiment  has  of  course  its  good  and  bad  sides.  It  is  more  powerful  than 
law,  indeed,  it  is  often  the  principal  source  of  law.  It  may  also  be  more 
severe  than  law,  and  somtimes  it  is  cruel,  but  always  more  or  less  a  tyrant. 

It  is  against  this  sentiment  that  women  are  battling  today.  To  their  aid 
a  great  war  has  come,  and  one  of  the  things  it  will  do  is  t:-  turn  topsy-turvy 
a  great  mass  of  public  opinion.  "We  shall  change  our  minds  about  things" 
is  one  of  the  common  expressions  of  conversation  and  of  public  journals. 
How  and  where  will  it  let  women  work?  Will  it  let  her  don  male  attire 
and  doff  her  own?  The  women  of  ancient  Israel  were  taught  that  it  was  an 
abomination  for  women  to  dress  as  men,  and  the  world  ever  since  has  said 
to  that  doctrine,  Amen!  Great  changes  are  taking  place  in  Europe  with 
respect  to  employment  and  dress.  These  changes  will  find  their  way  across 
the  ocean  to  our  own  country;  but  public  opinion  here  will  be  more  stub- 
born than  it  is  there. 

Another  thing  which  will  change  sentiment  in  this  country  will  be  the 
franchise  of  women.  Their  battle  is  on  now  with  such  a  determination  that 
its  long  resistance  seems  unlikely.  Their  political  influence  will  reach  all 
industrial  life  in  such  a  manner  as  to  sweep  away  distinction  hitherto  exist- 
ing in  wages  and  in  all  kinds  of  employment  for  women.  Competition  of  a 
violent  character  is  sure  to  arise  between  men  and  women.  Men  with  fam- 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  49 

ilies  will  be  at  a  disadvantage.  They  cannot  work  on  a  scale  of  wages  that 
women  will  accept  if  they  need  to  do  so  in  order  to  win  places  occupied 
by  men.  Then  we  may  expect  a  new  thing  in  the  world — sex  hatred.  In- 
deed, its  appearance  is  already  manifest  in  parts  of  Europe  today.  What 
a  serious  world  we  are  coming  to!  Maybe  the  curious  thing  after  all  is 
that  we  ourselves  cannot  be  attuned  to  the  new  life.  At  any  rate  the  present 
transformation  of  things  is  interesting.  But  the  changes  may  come  along 
slow  enough  for  us  to  adjust  ourselves  to  them  as  time  goes  on.  We  are  in 
a  period  of  reconstruction  when  the  new  is  taking  the  place  of  the  old.  It 
is  all  wonderful.  We  can  hardly  believe  ourselves  in  the  contemplation  that 
the  new  order  is  forcing  upon  us. 

Sex  Competition. — A  second  obstacle  to  the  demands  of  woman  is  the 
opposition  that  her  own  sex  will  force  upon  her.  Women  must  stand  by  their 
husbands  and  oppose  their  sisters  in  a  movement  calculated  to  rob  husbands 
of  their  employment.  Equal  pay  for  equal  work  has  the  ring  of  eternal  jus- 
tice. But  what  is  justice?  Child  life  is  needed,  it  must  be  encouraged  if  the 
nation  is  to  exist.  Men  and  women  must  have  some  assistance  if  they  are  to 
be  the  greatest  of  all  benefactors  to  their  country..  They  cannot  compete  with 
the  childless.  Will  the  state  take  over  the  expenses  of  child  life?  Children 
must  be  reared  in  homes.  A  parental  love  demands  that,  and  the  theory  of 
some  socialists  that  state  institutions  should  be  established  for  the  support 
of  children  is  idle  in  the  face  of  one  of  the  strongest  instincts  of  nature. 

There  is  an  ever  widening  chasm  between  the  present  and  the  past 
generation.  The  older  looks  askance  at  the  liberty  and  forwardness  of  the 
younger.  The  younger  is  working  a  revolution  in  the  propriety  and  fitness 
of  things.  The  women  of  this  generation  are  looking  at  life  from  a  new 
angle.  New  ambitions  have  come  to  them,  and  they  are  talking  "careers." 
They  mean  to  break  away  from  the  old  order  of  things  and  set  new  stand- 
ards of  life.  Will  these  standards  be  for  the  better  or  for  the  worse?  We 
all  shake  our  heads  at  times.  The  old  fashioned  mother  in  the  home,  the 
mother  whose  ambition  was  in  the  home,  is  still  our  ideal.  We  scarcely 
stop  to  think  that  the  home  may  become  a  thing  of  the  past,  is  indeed  in 
an  ever  widening  circle  becoming  so  now.  The  unmarried  and  the  child- 
less have  no  homes  as  we  have  known  them.  Those  of  limited  families 
are  drifting  from  home  life.  They  must  think  as  men  think,  and  live  as 
men  live.  Will  the  new  freedom  to  them  mean  a  license  to  do  what  men 
do?  Will  the  double  standard  pass  away,  and  the  moral  plane  of  woman 
fall  to  that  of  man?  Can  the  two  sexes  be  alike  in  so  many  respects  and  not 
be  in  danger  of  being  alike  in  all  respects?  In  the  past  responsibility  for 
immoral  conduct  has  rested  more  heavily  upon  woman.  She  is  learning  to 
evade  what  was  once  the  insignia  of  her  shame.  Remove  from  her  fear  of 
consequences,  and  will  not  the  dangers  for  her  be  as  great  as  they  are 
for  man? 

Intellectual  Ascendency. — The  intellectual  differences  between  the  pres- 
ent generation  of  women  and  the  past  can  perhaps  never  be  abridged.  Will 
the  moral  and  physical  difference  in  time  break  down?  Is  the  intellect 
in  the  ascendency?  If  so,  what  will  be  its  power  over  the  other  attributes 
of  woman?  Harriet  Orne,  in  the  Independent  of  September  1,  1917,  writes: 

"My  emotions  belong  to  the  world  of  my  mother,  but  my  mind 
lives  in  a  new  world  which  she  has  never  entered,  perhaps  would  not 
enter  if  she  could.  It  is  the  world  which  my  experience  has  made 
for  me,  an  intellectual  world  where  those  ideas  rule  which  have  had 
the  most  force  in  the  world  during  my  life  time  and  have  been  a  part 
of  my  education.  Between  my  mother's  intellectual  world  and  my 
own  a  gulf  is  fixed,  and  we  look  across  wistfully  at  one  another  and 
strive  tactfully  to  protect  each  other  from  our  own  opinions. 

"I  believe  that  the  gap  between  the  thinking  of  the  women  of  my 
mother's  generation,  and  the  thinking  of  the  women  of  my  own  gen- 
eration is  a  greater  gap  than  has  existed  between  any  two  other  gener- 
ations of  women  in  the  history  that  we  know." 


50  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

What  will  the  competition  of  women  mean  to  men?  At  present  they 
are  equipping  themselves  intellectually  better  than  men.  They  are  more 
steadfast  as  students  and  have  fewer  evil  habits  that  sap  the  physical  and 
mental  life  of  man.  What  of  the  physical  differences  between  them?  The 
women  of  this  generation  in  the  activities  of  the  home  show  more  per- 
sistency and  endurance  than  men.  Here  is  a  testimonial  from  Pierre  Hamp 
on  the  work  of  French  women  in  the  munition  factories: 

"Between  the  sewing  machine  or  the  typewriter  key  and  the  me- 
chanic's lathe  there  is  no  very  great  distance;  there  is  more  fatigue  in 
making  clothes  on  a  sewing  machine  for  troops  than  in  turning  a  75 
mm.  gun  on  a  lathe  one  meter  long.  To  pass  the  inside  border  of  the 
hem  exactly  under  the  needle  requires  about  the  same  attention  as  to 
follow  with  one's  eye  the  working  of  the  tool  while  calibrating  the 
weapon. 

"Woman  could  easily  pass  directly  from  her  previous  tasks  to  this 
treatment  of  steel  in  the  workshops,  for  she  had  been  spending  herself 
before  in  more  exhausting  work.  No  great  effort  is  required  of  her 
in  metal  turning.  She  has  soon  come  to  excel  at  it,  and  is  as  efficient 
as  man  and  often  more  so.  In  a  workshop  for  making  shell  cases  one 
woman  succeeded  in  a  fortnight  in  attaining  the  average  rate  of  pro- 
duction at  piece  work  rates.  She  asked  if  she  would  be  paid  for  all 
she  made,  irrespective  of  their  number.  This  privilege  was  given, 
and  in  six  weeks  she  reached  a  scale  of  production  twice  as  great  as 
that  of  men. 

"It  was  formerly  thought  that  woman's  care  could  not  be  trusted 
when  very  exact  measurements  had  to  be  made,  but  the  eyes  of  an 
embroiderer  are  sharper  than  those  of  a  man,  and  machines  for  mak- 
ing light  artillery  presented  few  difficulties  for  her." 

Women  and  War. — What  about  woman  as  a  fighter?  Biologists  say, 
"The  female  of  the  species  is  deadlier  than  the  male."  Now  that  women 
squads  in  Great  Britain  are  undergoing  intense  military  training,  and  many 
of  the  women  of  this  country  are  so  given  to  military  excitement,  one  is 
compelled  to  ask  what  may  not  yet  be  done  by  women  if  the  war  continues 
much  longer.  In  Prussia  a  woman's  battalion  has  been  formed  and  has 
seen  active  service.  The  famous  New  York  physician,  Dr.  Hammond,  in  a 
recent  interview  in  the  Times  has  this  to  say  about  woman  and  war: 

"At  present  there  is  no  question  that  woman  represents  the  undis- 
ciplined sex.  That  is  particularly  so  in  this  country.  Women  have 
been  allowed  too  much  ease  and  luxury  and  pleasure  without  any  of 
the  sobering  responsibility  that  goes  with  world  making." 

"Don't  you,  Doctor,  consider  the  task  of  child  bearing  and  rearing 
as  great  and  sobering  a  responsibility  as  any  borne  by  the  average 
male?" 

"I  certainly  do.  Aside  from  the  contribution  to  the  State,  it  is  the 
best  thing  a  woman  can  do  for  her  own  well-being,  both  moral  and 
physical.  A  woman  is  not  fully  a  woman  until  she  has  borne  a  child. 
But  child-bearing  is  going  out  of  fashion,  especially  here  in  America. 
And  it  is  with  an  acceptation  of  this  condition  that  I  speak." 

"Where  women  have  acquired  economic  strength,  financial  inde- 
pendence, there  is  undoubtedly  a  disposition  to  break  away  from 
the  discipline  of  established  decencies.  It  may  be  that  women  are 
innately  anarchistic,  and  that  they  must  be  held  in  leash  by  eco- 
nomic dependence,  and  possess  a  physical  strength  less  than  that  of 
the  dominant  male;  but  I  would  like  to  see  the  experiment  made  of 
subjecting  them  to  the  iron  discipline  of  military  life. 

"Of  course,  there  could  be  no  segregation  of  regiments  according 
to  sex.  Women,  if  they  are  to  be  any  real  use  to  their  country  as 
soldiers,  and  if  they  are  to  get  any  real  benefit  themselves  from  the 
training,  would  have  to  play  their  part  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  51 

men.  I  have  no  doubt  this  would  result  in  colossal  license  for  a  time; 
but  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  problem  would  work  out  its  own  solu- 
tion. I  have  no  doubt  of  the  enduring  morality  of  the  world.  All 
change  means  disruption  and  chaos  for  a  time;  and  then  the  true 
equilibrium  is  found.  I,  for  one,  would  be  perfectly  willing  to  put  the 
world's  morality  to  the  test, — crucial,  I  admit — of  sending  mixed  regi- 
ments of  men  and  women." 

These  are  truly  grave  problems  of  life  in  woman's  world.  The  steps 
sometimes  from  the  suggestive  to  the  possible,  from  the  possible  to  the 
probable,  and  probable  to  the  reality,  are  not  only  short  but  rapid.  Who 
does  not  venture  a  prediction? 

Remedy. — What  will  happen  after  the  breakdown  of  marriage  in  our 
social  life?  A  period  of  reconstruction  will  follow.  Marriage  must  of 
course  be  reinstated.  Without  it  there  can  be  for  us  no  heaven  or  no  earth. 
An  awful  punishment  is  already  at  hand  because  the  world  has  thrown  off 
the  responsibility  to  such  an  extent  of  this  divine  requirement. 

Read  Sec.  49:15,16,17,  Doc.  and  Cov. 


XXI — Dependent  Mothers 

A  Serious  Problem. — One  of  the  big  economic  problems  of  the  future 
will  be  the  fostering  care  of  widows  with  children  to  care  for.  In  our  own 
country  thirty  states  have  made  provision  by  law  for  the  support  of  children 
whose  mothers  were  not  able  to  care  for  them.  These  enactments  were 
passed  without  regard  to  the  war.  When  it  is  over,  it  is  easy  to  imagine 
the  great  burden  which  such  unsupported  children  will  cast  upon  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth.  I  may  include  in  those  mentioned  the  great  numbers 
who  are  and  will  be  born  out  of  wedlock.  Children  are  a  great  asset  to 
the  world,  but  aside  from  economic  considerations,  there  will  be  involved 
the  question  of  humanity.  When  the  war  broke  out  there  was  a  wave  of 
immorality  that  resulted  in  many  thousands  of  so-called  war  babies.  The 
untold  number  of  children  dependent  on  the  state  for  support  may  well 
approximate  many  million.  It  was  a  great  step  the  world  took  when  it  was 
decided  that  children  were  entitled  to  an  education  by  the  state.  The 
question  of  the  value  of  an  education  to  the  state  is  subordinate  to  the 
question  of  life  itself  to  the  state.  The  burden  will  be  enormous,  and  it  is 
likely  through  divorce  and  illegitimacy,  to  grow  beyond  our  wildest  imag- 
ination. What  we  know  of  taxation  will  be  incomparable  with  what  we  have 
yet  to  learn.  It  may  reach  the  breaking  point,  and  result  in  great  social 
disorder.  It  is  so  serious  already  that  thoughtful  men  are  preparing  our 
minds  for  what  is  certain  to  be  a  crucial  ordeal.  For  years  there  will  be 
no  escape  from  the  load  we  shall  have  to  carry.  It  is  of  course  easy  to 
imagine  that  attempts  will  be  made  to  avoid  it  by  the  practice  of  race 
suicide.  But  could  the  world  deliberately  destroy  itself?  The  spirit  of 
self-destruction  is  rife  in  war.  Is  there  no  remedy?  We  are  in  a  state  of 
intolerable  darkness.  It  is  earier  to  wonder  than  it  is  to  know  what  the 
world  will  do.  There  has  always  been  in  the  past  some  redeeming  power 
against  universal  destruction.  A  world  practically  without  religion  is  on 
trial. 

A  Fatherless  Home. — A  new  world  problem  also  arises.  How  can  chil- 
dren be  reared  without  father?  Is  the  father  a  necessary  factor  in  the 
home,  independent  of  the  material  support  he  gives?  Judge  Niel  of  Chi- 
cago, who  is  now  in  London  in  the  interest  of  his  propaganda  for  the  statf 
support  of  fatherless  children,  and  who  for  years  past  has  been  the  leading 
advocate  of  this  doctrine  in  the  United  States,  has  this  to  say,  according 
to  the  New  York  Sunday  Sun  of  September  9,  1917: 

"Where  the  mother  is  trained  in  mothercraft,  as  in  some  states, 
and  given  sufficient  support  so  that  she  can  buy  food,  clothes  and 


52  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

shelter,  and  keep  her  children  in  health,  a  far  smaller  number  of 
youngsters  get  into  the  juvenile  courts  than  in  the  case  where  a 
father  of  inferior  grade  is  around.  The  presence  of  a  father  is  not 
necessary  to  the  successful  rearing  of  a  child.  The  disadvantages  of 
fathers  probably  are  the  result  principally  of  the  low  wage  system, 
but  as  things  are,  fathers  usually  fuss  and  make  general  nuisances 
of  themselves  about  the  house. 

"Careful  study  has  shown  that  homes  under  the  mothers'  pen- 
sion system,  in  which  no  father  appears  at  all,  are  better  than  those 
in  which  low  wage  fathers  are  present  daily. 

"This  tends  toward  the  natural  condition,  because  most  women 
would  rather  be  respectably  married  mothers  rearing  children  than 
unmarried  operatives  in  a  factory  or  employes  of  an  office.  If  nor- 
mal women  are  given  the  opportunity  of  being  wives  and  independent 
mothers,  this  will  decrease  also  the  prostitution  problem,  for,  speak- 
ing generally,  there  never  is  a  prostitution  problem  in  the  psychology 
of  any  woman  till  her  mother  instincts  have  been  outraged.  That 
is  something  worthy  of  much  thought.  The  world  is  now  confronted 
with  the  problem  of  raising  great  masses  of  children  without  the 
supervision  of  fathers.  It  is  entirely  new,  but  on  the  success  of  its 
solution  will  depend  the  race  in  Europe  and  perhaps  in  America 
twenty  years  from  now.  If  the  state  sees  that  mothers  have  an 
opportunity  of  properly  rearing  their  own  children,  the  killing  off 
of  the  men  which  has  occurred  during  this  war  will  be  comparatively 
of  slight  importance,  for  twenty  years  from  now  the  nation  will  be 
made  up  of  the  children  of  today,  not  of  the  men  who  would  have 
lived  in  peace,  but  instead  died  in  war." 

State  pensions  for  all  mothers  under  the  changed  conditions  will  cer- 
tainly give  encouragement  for  an  unnumbered  mass  of  illegitimate  children. 

Will  men  who  must  bear  the  major  portion  of  this  load  consent  to  it? 
Will  they  set  up  a  distinction  between  the  unmarried  mother  and  the  mother 
who  has  been  through  a  divorcement;  between  the  mother  whose  husband 
has  died  and  the  mother  who  has  deliberately  sought  motherhood  in  re- 
sponse to  the  maternal  instinct  with  which  she  is  endowed? 

Will  the  fathers  of  the  children  of  these  unmarried  mothers  be  dragged 
into  the  court  and  forced  by  law  to  support  their  children?  It  might  be 
easier  and  cheaper  for  the  state  to  support  the  children  than  to  multiply 
the  courts  and  other  agencies  to  enforce  their  support.  The  whole  thing 
is  a  whirligig,  which  ever  way  we  look  at  it.  Before  legislatures  consent  to 
such  a  wholesale  draft  upon  the  public  treasury,  they  may  yield,  for  eco- 
nomic reasons,  to  a  growing  demand  for  education  in  the  art  of  birth  con- 
trol. Birth  control  would  claim  the  best  of  arguments.  Our  moral  intui- 
tions and  religious  standards  are  breaking  down  from  the  sheer  weight  of 
economic  necessity.  It's  all  a  labyrinth.  God  no  doubt  has  a  way  out  for 
his  children,  but  they  are  at  sea. 

Illegitimate  Children. — Illegitimate  children  are  multiplying,  so  are  the 
children  of  divorces.  Is  there  a  great  difference  between  those  who  see  an 
easy  way  out  and  those  who  get  in  wrong?  The  great  encouragement  for 
the  birth  of  all  classes  will  be  the  need  of  an  increased  population. 

Judge  Niel  further  says: 

"Germany  is  caring  for  all  illegitimate  children  and  looking  after 
the  mothers  as  well  as  during  and  after  birth.  An  official  statement  says 
that  three  million  such  children  now  are  being  cared  for  by  the  state. 
Neither  in  the  case  of  legitimate  or  in  that  of  illegitimiate  are  the 
mothers  allowed  to  work  for  a  considerable  period  before  and  after 
the  birth  of  a  child. 

"In  Australia  every  mother,  married  or  unmarried,  who  gives  birth 
to  a  living  child  gets  £5,  or  about  twenty-five  dollars;  whether  she  be 
married  or  unmarried,  rich  or  poor.  Manitoba  has  just  passed  a 
mothers'  pension  law. 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  53 

"To  me  these  millions  of  children  who  must  be  reared  without 
financial  aid  from  fathers  obviously  present  the  biggest  problem  that 
the  world  has  ever  seen.  Britain,  France,  Italy,  Russia,  Germany,  Aus- 
tria, and  perhaps  America  will  find  themselves  unable  to  continue  by 
the  old  methods  and  still  survive  as  nations.  If  the  widows  and 
orphans  of  this  war  are  permitted  to  struggle  unaided  through  their 
lives  and  to  be  degenerated  by  inevitable  poverty,  decades  of  progress 
will  be  lost  thereby." 

The  computation  of  the  present  load  upon  the  state  is  not  the  end  of 
the  solution.  Myriads  of  widows  and  unmarried  mothers  will  go  on  having 
children.  The  mother  instinct  will  grow  by  what  it  feeds  upon.  Tfie 
dimensions  are  beyond  calculation.  It  means  chaos.  Order  will  have  to 
be  evolved  from  it.  Sane  methods  and  correct  principles  will  have  to  be 
seriously  worked  out. 

The  Religious  Side. — Another  danger  arises  in  the  midst  of  it  all.  Will 
men  marry?  Why  assume  a  responsibility  they  can  let  the  state  carry? 
What  will  become  of  the  whole  marriage  system?  The  undertaking  will 
have  serious  dangers  for  the  state.  The  state  argument  breaks  down.  The 
whole  question  is  not  political;  it  is  not  economic  fundamentally.  It  is 
religious.  Is  the  world  ready  for  religion?  There  are  numerous  examples 
in  history  of  religious  break-downs.  The  sorrowful  thing  of  it  all  is  that 
the  restoration  of  religion  is  one  of  the  last  phases  of  regeneration.  Think 
of  what  we  have  yet  to  pass  through  between  the  fall  of  the  old  and  the 
birth  of  the  new!  The  world  must  certainly  travail  in  pain. 

The  World's  Burden. — The  situation  is  not  improved  by  the  light- 
minded  manner  in  which  the  subject  is  treated  by  those  who  make  a  jest 
of  it  all.  It  is  not  a  passing  world  mood.  It  will  grow  into  the  fulness  of  a 
world  calamity.  Its  weight  will  repress  every  part  of  our  physical,  moral, 
and  intellectual  natures.  No  class  will  escape  it.  The  rich  will  stare  at 
bankruptcy  and  the  poor  will  groan.  Wounded  men  by  the  millions  will 
also  become  a  load  upon  the  state.  The  world  has  never  seen  anything 
like  it.  There  will  be  great  masses  of  children  who  have  neither  father 
nor  mother.  War  brings  diseases,  and  the  severe  strain  of  mothers  now  in 
munition  plants  and  in  other  works  requiring  the  most  strenuous  life  will 
break  down  from  the  excessive  strain  put  upon  them.  Women's  nerves  will 
give  way  till  hundreds  of  thousands  of  them  will  die.  The  nations  will 
have  a  heavy  load  to  carry  in  the  support  of  children  who  have  neither 
father  nor  mother.  Then  there  will  arise  another  problem,  the  question  of 
employment.  Before  children  are  ready  to  assume  the  independent  status 
of  manhood,  there  will  be  a  long  period  when  their  labors  must  be  under 
some  sort  of  guidance  and  control.  Who  will  employ  them?  The  state? 
Can  private  enterprise  be  depended  upon  to  absorb  such  labor?  Much  of 
the  labor  nowadays  is  transient,  a  few  weeks  or  months  here,  and  a  few 
months  there.  It  would  be  dangerous  to  turn  out  so  many  thousands  into 
what  really  represents  tramp  life. 

Indifference. — "We  should  solve  these  things  when  we  come  to  them,** 
the  indifferent  may  say.  But  there  are  many  things  we  ought  not  to  come  to. 
Britain  left  the  matter  of  war  till  she  came  to  it.  It  resulted  in  wholesale 
slaughter  of  human  life.  Sometimes  the  "leaving  of  things'*  is  the  worst 
phase  of  the  difficulty.  It  is  all  confusion  madly  confounded.  Neither  may 
men  in  such  an  age  be  indifferent  to  impending  calamities.  A  message  has 
been  revealed,  and  great  effort  put  forth  to  deliver  it.  It  has  been  scantily 
received. 

If  this  miscellaneous  child  life  is  thrown  helpless  and  uncared  for  upon 
the  world,  what  physical  and  moral  dangers  must  come  to  it!  If  demorali- 
zation comes  to  it,  it  will  impregnate  all  child  life.  The  state  will  suffer, 
and  society  deteriorate.  "Where  is  wisdom?"  asked  a  noble  ancient.  Hu- 
man wisdom  is  in  the  scales.  Will  it  be  found  wanting?  There  was  once 
a  handwriting  on  the  wall.  There  is  again,  and  its  interpretation  has  already 
been  given. 


54  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

Revelation. — "And  the  time  cometh  speedily  that  great  things  are  to  be 
shown  forth  unto  the  children  of  men; 

"But  without  faith  shall  not  anything  be  shown  forth  except  desolation 
upon  Babylon,  the  same  which  has  made  all  nations  drink  of  the  wine  of 
the  wrath  of  her  fornication. 

"And  there  are  none  that  doeth  good,  except  those  who  are  ready  to 
receive  the  fulness  of  my  gospel  which  I  have  sent  forth  unto  this  generation. 

"Wherefore,  I  have  called  upon  the  weak  things  of  the  world,  those  who 
are  unlearned  and  despised,  to  thresh  the  nations  by  the  power  of  my  Spirit" 
(Doc.  and  Cov.  35:11-13). 


XXII — Sexual  Life 

Its  Importance  in  Life. — One  of  the  burning  questions  of  the  age,  and 
at  the  same  time  one  of  the  consuming  evils,  is  the  life-long  story  of  man's 
sexual  life.  It  protrudes  in  all  the  great  historical  events  of  the  world,  and 
now  that  there  are  in  that  life  such  alarming  dangers  to  the  happiness  and 
continuity  of  the  race,  men  and  women  have  thrown  off  all  disguise  of 
modesty,  and  speak  on  the  subject  with  a  frankness  that  would  have  seemed 
shocking  a  generation  back. 

Sexual  life  is  fundamental  in  our  family  and  social  existence.  One  of 
the  difficulties  respecting  it  arises  from  the  fact  that  we  have  come  to  view  it 
from  an  entirely  false  point  of  view.  We  speak  of  it  sometimes  as  a  "carnal 
life,"  as  a  sort  of  necessary  evil,  as  a  fallen  condition  of  which  we  ought  to 
be  ashamed  and  for  which  we  apologize,  and  as  a  sin  which  we  lay  at  the 
door  of  Adam  and  Eve.  And  why  this  shame,  this  apology?  It  is  no  doubt 
because  that  life  has  been  the  most  shamefully  abused  and  most  ignorantly 
approached  of  all  the  conditions  of  our  worldly  existence. 

Duty. — God  implanted  in  all  life  the  powers  of  procreation,  and  all  life 
has  a  three-fold  duty:  of  birth,  reproduction,  and  death.  These  are  the 
general  laws  of  our  existence.  Concerning  the  duty  of  reproduction,  he 
made  to  Adam  and  Eve  the  announcement  of  the  law  that  man  should  not 
live  alone,  that  he  should  multiply  and  replenish  the  earth. 

Man,  then,  in  his  mortal  condition,  became  a  creator  by  reason  of  the 
sexual  powers  with  which  God  had  endowed  him.  He  became  in  turn  like 
his  Creator — finite,  it  is  true,  yet  he  made  a  beginning  to  the  powers  of  his 
creation,  which  must  grow  in  perfection  as  man  grows  in  attainments. 

Blessings. — God  called  Abraham  forth  from  the  valley  of  the  Mesopota- 
mia. The  great  object  of  that  call  was  to  make  him  the  progenitor  of  a  cho- 
sen people  through  whom  the  Messiah  was  to  come.  With  that  call  there 
came  a  promise,  which  Abraham  held  choice  above  all  other  promises:  that 
his  children  should  be  as  numerous  as  the  stars  of  the  heaven  or  the  sands 
of  the  seashore.  Love  is  the  first  fruits  of  man's  creative  powers.  I  hardly 
need  point  to  the  Old  Testament  for  evidence  respecting  the  law  of  purity 
and  the  purposes  of  God.  God  taught  it  to  Moses  on  the  Tables  of  the  Law; 
Christ  preached  it  to  his  followers;  he  denounced  his  enemies  because  of 
their  adulterous  lives.  Their  fall  from  purity  made  it  impossible  for  them 
to  comprehend  or  follow  him. 

Relationship  of  Sexual  Life  and  the  Spirit  of  God. — Let  us  come  down 
to  conditions  and  experiences  of  our  own  times;  men  go  forth  into  the 
world  as  misionaries  to  expound  divine  laws,  to  preach  repentance,  and  to 
warn.  From  their  words,  faith  is  implanted  in  the  hearts  of  men.  Those 
who  are  seeking  divine  truth  are  susceptible  to  the  influences  of  these  mis- 
sionaries. The  purity  of  their  lives  gives  effectiveness  to  their  testimonies. 
On  the  other  hand,  digression  from  the  law  of  purity  robs  them  of  their 
spiritual  life,  and  often  severs  the  relationship  in  them  between  the  human 
and  the  divine.  Men  who  digress  from  the  higher  mission  of  sexual  life  lose 
faith,  grow  in  profanity,  until  it  suits  their  conscience  best  to  believe  that 
there  is  no  God,  except  the  laws  of  nature,  towards  which  they  feel  no  very 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  55 

great  responsibility.  When  the  law  of  sexual  life  has  been  transgressed 
through  sin,  men  and  women  suffer  the  loss  of  divine  love.  The  sexual  life 
is  God-ordained,  in  the  animal,  vegetable,  and  human  world.  Its  mission  is 
the  mission  of  life  and  progress.  It  carries  with  it  joy  and  blessings,  within 
its  legitimate  exercise.  The  exalted  nature  of  this  life,  however,  makes  it  a 
source  of  temptation,  and  the  depravity  of  its  sinful  course  is  as  debasing  as 
its  legitimate  exercise  is  exalting. 

Exercise. — It  is  a  hidden  life,  and  therefore  susceptible  to  all  the 
greater  dangers.  It  is  a  universal  life,  and  therefore  within  universal  re- 
quirements; but  it  is  said  that  many  of  the  failures  of  that  life  are  not  the 
result  of  man's  preference  or  decision;  they  belong  rather  to  the  misfortunes 
of  life,  to  disappointments,  and  impossibilities.  But  what  is  the  attitude  of 
all  men  toward  such  a  life?  Is  it  one  of  humble  acknowledgment,  or  one 
of  indifference  and  pronounced  contempt?  Into  every  man's  and  woman's 
life  God  has  implanted  sexual  desires  which  have  a  legitimate  mission  that 
may  be  faithfully  performed,  rejected,  or  abused.  It  is  a  life  that  God  in- 
tended should  be  filled  in  a  legitimate  manner,  which  he  has  pointed  out  to 
his  children. 

The  Fall. — We  do  not  regret  the  Fall,  for  through  it  came  the  oppor- 
tunities of  Christ's  redemption,  which  means  immortality  through  the  res- 
urrection, and  eternal  life  through  the  gift  of  God.  The  question  of  our 
sexual  life  is  the  burning  question  of  the  age,  but  with  it  there  comes  the 
further  question  as  to  how  the  oncoming  generation  shall  be  taught  to  view 
and  appreciate  it.  Shall  fathers,  mothers,  and  friends  speak  with  frankness? 
Too  much  frankness  may  be  harmful.  Shall  we  make  its  teaching  more 
general,  and  shall  the  knowledge  of  our  sexual  life  be  made  more  familiar 
to  the  rising  generation?  There  is  such  a  thin  veil  between  its  exalting  and 
its  sinful  effects  that  the  thoughts  of  those  whom  we  may  teach  may  dwell 
upon  the  evil  side  of  it.  "The  knowledge  of  evil  tempteth  to  its  commis- 
sion," says  Canon  Farrar.  The  great  war  has  revealed  to  us  evil  conditions 
in  sexual  life  of  which  we  have  never  dreamed.  The  revelations  of  what  has 
been  the  secret  lives  of  those  in  service  and  those  unfit  for  service  is  but  one 
phase  of  the  evils  of  that  life.  They  may  be  as  poignant  and  as  afflicting 
in  the  home  as  they  are  in  the  army.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the 
evils  of  divorce,  and  the  hatreds  which  spring  up  between  men  and  women 
in  the  home  are  due  in  a  large  measure  to  the  evil  relationships  there  which 
are  after  all  indirect  revelations  of  excessive  and  perhaps  debasing  sexual 
lives.  God  alone  knows;  he  must  be,  therefore,  the  Judge  of  our  universe, 
and  now  that  he  is  speaking  in  the  thundrous  tones  of  war,  famine  and 
pestilence,  shall  we  not  stand  awed  in  the  presence  of  those  calamities  which 
.are  rapidly  spreading  over  the  world? 

Duty  to  Teach. — We  often  leave  our  children  to  gain  their  first  im- 
pressions of  sexual  life  from  street  urchins  and  those  whose  vulgarities  make 
them  bold  in  presenting  that  life  more  from  a  debasing  than  an  uplifting 
point  of  view.  The  first  knowledge  of  sexual  life  should  come  from  parents 
who  may  create  in  their  children  exalting  views  about  it. 

Desires,  thoughts  and  feelings  may  be  carnal.  If  man  "follows  after  his 
carnal  desires,  he  must  fall  and  incur  the  vengeance  of  a  just  God  upon 
him"  (Doc.  and  Cov.  3:4). 


XXIII— Divorce 

Growth  of  Divorce. — Easy  and  frequent  divorce  has  become  in  the 
United  States  a  scandalous  condition.  The  state  has  always  considered  itself 
a  third  party  to  a  marriage,  and  has  therefore  insisted  that  both  marriage 
and  divorce  must  be  subject  to  the  regulations  of  the  law.  While  divorce 
can  effect  only  by  legal  proceedings,  the  grounds  for  divorce  have  been  so 
elastic,  and  judges  so  willing  that  unhappy  marriages  should  be  dissolved, 
that  the  daily  grind  of  divorces  in  the  United  States  has  grown  to  enormous 
proportions,  said  Jtp  be  one  out  of  twelve  marriages. 


56  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

There  has  been  a  wide  divergence  of  opinion  throughout  the  world  on 
the  subject.  Religious  organizations  have  considered  it  a  sacrament  of  the 
church  and  have  undertaken  to  regulate  it  by  a  religious  ban  upon  those 
who  were  divorced  uncier  certain  conditions.  They  forbade  remarriage  and 
punished  religiously  those  who  disregarded  church  requirements.  The 
churches,  however,  have  become  less  and  less  an  important  factor  in  the 
matter  of  divorce.  The  question  is  one  of  growing  difficulty,  owing  to  the 
increased  disinclination  to  marry.  Where  divorce  is  difficult,  marriage  is 
restricted,  and  even  where  marriage  exists  wives  and  husbands  live  apart 
without  any  intention  to  marry  again.  Such  a  condition  leads  of  course  to 
gross  immorality.  Sexual  relations  and  the  love  growing  out  of  them  are 
dominating  factors  in  human  life.  What  was  intended  to  be  a  blessing,  be- 
comes a  curse  through  the  misuse  of  passion.  How  to  control  a  God-or- 
dained instinct  in  its  proper  exercise  has  been  a  most  troublesome  question 
from  the  dawn  of  history.  There  is  of  course  only  one  proper  channel  of 
regulation,  and  that  is  marriage.  Even  marriage  is  no  protection  against  the 
shocking  abuses  of  human  passion,  and  it  often  becomes  a  license  rather 
than  a  right  to  be  sacredly  treated.  Law  cannot  reach  the  most  violent 
abuse  of  virtue  in  marriage  relations;  neither  can  it  force  man  and  wife  to 
live  together  when  they  become  obnoxious  to  each  other.  It  can  at  best  say 
that  they  shall  not  be  divorced  and  that  they  shall  not  marry  others.  In 
England  there  has  long  been  a  partial  divorce  from  "bed  and  table,"  but 
while  such  a  law  may  prevent  either  from  marrying,  it  does  not  really  rem- 
edy a  great  social  wrong. 

Unwillingness  to  Marry. — There  is  now  an  evil  taking  root  in  our  social 
life  more  alarming  than  divorce,  and  that  is  the  unwillingness  of  men  to 
marry.  It  is  estimated  that  fully  one  half  of  the  men  in  the  United  States 
between  21  and  45  are  unmarried.  Late  marriages  are  quite  generally  advo- 
cated, that  is,  late  marriages  for  men.  That  fact  gives  rise  to  the  so-called 
double  standard  that  requires  the  strictest  virtue  in  women  and  allows  the 
greatest  laxity  in  men.  One  of  our  metropolitan  papers  recently  set  up  a 
justification  for  this  standard  by  the  argument  that  when  a  woman  is  untrue 
to  her  husband,  he  becomes  intolerable  to  her  and  that  she  no  longer  loves 
him,  while  the  opposite  is  true  of  man. 

Divorce  is  evaded  in  some  countries  by  whal  is  called  in  Germany  wild 
marriage.  Men  and  women  under  this  system  simply  live  together.  If  they 
have  children  they  style  themselves  husband  and  wife,  and  the  children,  who 
often  know  nothing  of  their  parents'  status,  address  them  as  father  and 
mother.  The  excuse  of  such  a  practice  is  of  course  the  plea  that  divorce  is 
impossible.  Such  a  practice  further  admits  of  a  great  deal  of  shifting  of  men 
and  women  from  one  to  another.  The  fact  that  women  have  lived  with 
other  men  before  marriage,  and  even  where  they  have  children,  does  not 
carry  the  same  weight  of  objection  in  Germany  that  it  does  in  other  coun- 
tries. 

• 

Partial  Divorce. — The  evils  above  described  are  not  the  result  of  the 
ease  or  difficulty  with  which  divorces  may  be  procured.  They  are  the  result 
of  immoral  natures  which  the  conscience  is  unable  to  correct.  In  the  ab- 
sence of  positive  religious  convictions,  the  conscience  becomes  a  very  elastic 
thing. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  trend  of  modern  state  requirements  is  in  the  di- 
rection of  easier  divorces.  How  far  the  laxity  in  matters  of  divorce  can  be 
carried  without  breaking  down  the  present  marriage  system  it  is  diffcult  to 
say.  There  is  a  breaking  point,  however,  in  marriage  where  the  state  may 
become  a  party  to  it.  At  any  rate  the  state  may  become  an  indifferent 
spectator.  The  Chicago  Sunday  Tribune,  of  August  26,  1917,  prints  the  fol- 
lowing from  London: 

"That  there  are  from  250,000  to  300,000  persons  in  Great  Britain 
legally  separated  yet  not  divorced,  is  one  of  the  statements  in  the 
report  of  the  royal  commission  which  has  lately  been  investigating 
the  divorce  problem. 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  57 

"This,  moreover,  is  only  a  beginning.  Other  multitudes  of  men 
and  women  who  have  been  married  continue  not  only  married  but 
without  even  legal  authority,  to  live  apart,  although  they  do  not  and 
could  not  live  together.  Probably  this  second  classification  is  larger 
than  the  first. 

"However  greatly  both  husband  and  wife  may  wish  it,  they  cannot 
be  divorced  unless  there  has  been  adultery  on  the  wife's  part,  or 
adultery  and  also  cruelty,  on  the  husbancTs  part."  [Another  in- 
stance of  the  double  standard.] 

"Even  advocates  of  easier  divorce  in  some  cases  fear  that  this 
measure  would  make  it  too  easy.  But  the  people  who  have  investi- 
gated do  not.  They  describe  fearfully  immoral  conditions  widely 
existent  because  of  the  present  difficulties  of  getting  divorce.  Immor- 
ality, illegitimacy,  disease  and  a  fearful  number  of  cases  of  bigamy  are 
numerated.  Husband  and  wife  legally  bound  to  each  other,  yet  le- 
gally separated,  forced  to  lives  of  celibacy,  lose  all  moral  standards. 
The  fact  that  they  are  commonly  poor  makes  the  results  yet  worse." 

Wije  Trading. — Wife  trading  is  another  divorce  evil  which  easy  separa- 
tion encourages,  and  yet  it  is  not  so  baneful  to  society  as  the  conditions 
described  in  Great  Britain.  Now  and  then  such  trading  is  given  in  the 
public  print,  and  generally  given  in  such  humorous  vein  that  the  matter  is 
treated  as  a  joke  rather  than  as  a  warning.  A  large  public  sentiment  is  in- 
different to  it.  As  I  write  the  following  appears  in  a  New  York  paper  from 
Havre,  Montana,  of  August  26,  the  date  on  which  the  conditions  in  Great 
Britain  are  described: 

"Usually  when  a  man  falls  in  love  with  another  man's  wife 
there's  a  shooting  affray.  And  again,  when  a  woman  gets  to  liking 
another  woman's  husband  better  than  her  own,  there's  the  deuce  to 
pay.  But  not  so  here!  When  Mrs.  T.,  a  wife  of  a  prominent  Havre 
lawyer,  felt  she  loved  the  husband  of  Mrs.  J.  better  than  her  own 
mate,  she  didn't  hide  the  matter.  Nor  did  Mrs.  J.  when  she  fell  in 
love  with  Mr.  T.  Nor  did  Mr.  T.  when  he  took  a  liking  to  Mrs.  J. 
Nor  did  Mr.  J.  when  he  became  fonder  of  Mrs.  T.  than  of  his  own 
wife.  They  all  went  to  Boulder  Hot  Springs,  obtained  a  divorce, 
and  then  by  marriage  made  the  trade  complete.  These  neighbors  each 
had  a  boy  and  a  girl.  After  the  trade  one  took  the  two  boys  and  the 
other  the  two  girls,  and  all  parties  were  pleased  with  the  new  ar- 
rangements." 

"May  they  live  happily  ever  afterward,  almost  any  one  will  hope,"  is 
the  closing  sentence  of  this  article. 

Dangers  of  Childless  Lives. — Such  inroads  made  into  family  life  are 
aided  greatly  by  the  absence  of  children  in  the  home.  It  is  an  abortive 
attempt  to  substitute  the  pleasures  of  life  for  the  God-ordained  laws  of  our 
being.  Some  years  ago  a  commission  of  eminent  physicians  met  in  Con- 
stantinople to  make  an  investigation  into  the  moral  conditions  of  the  Turks. 
The  writer  asked  one  of  these  physicians  why  such  conditions  as  he  de- 
scribed among  the  married  women  of  France  prevailed.  "It  is  one  of  the 
simplest  laws  of  nature,"  he  replied.  "When  a  man  marries  he  usually 
makes  a  harlot  out  of  his  wife  by  the  prevention  of  offspring.  It  is  an  easy 
step  from  harlotry  of  the  home  to  promiscuous  harlotry.  A  man  by  such 
a  course  sows  the  seeds  of  a  deadly  suspicion  in  his  own  mind,  and  reap* 
the  harvest  of  marital  despair.  He  robs  himself  of  contentment  and  do- 
mestic happiness  and  pays  the  penalty  nature  has  in  store  for  him." 

Secret  Evils. — An  external  survey  of  married  life  and  of  the  causes  which 
led  to  divorce  is  at  most  only  superficial.  The  grosser  evils  belong  to  the 
secrets  of  the  home,  they  are  a  part  of  the  immoral  nature  of  man.  The 
patent  remedies  of  the  world  today  do  not  reach  the  seat  of  the  disease.  The 
true  remedy  lies  in  the  return  of  man  \Q  the  true  worship  of  God,  a  wor- 


58  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

ship  in  which  he  feels  a  direct  responsibility  to  his  Maker.  The  most  sacred 
rights  of  woman  have  been  overthrown.  They  are  not  economic  or  political, 
they  are  domestic,  and  yet  she  pursues  political  and  social  remedies  that  do 
not  solve  the  question  of  her  happiness.  Her  fundamental,  indispensable 
rights  to  happiness  are  found  in  wifehood,  motherhood,  and  perfect  freedom 
in  the  control  of  her  body.  Indecency  in  married  life  may  not  be  so  baneful 
as  promiscuous  sexual  intercourse,  yet  it  lays  the  foundation  of  a  great 
multitude  of  divorces. 

"Why  marry  at  all?"  is  the  soliloquy  of  millions  of  men  who  point  to 
divorce  and  marital  unhappiness  as  an  excuse.  The  source  of  our  present 
conditions  must  be  sought  in  our  own  secret  internal  life.  We  can  hardly 
say  like  the  prophet  of  old:  "Search  me,  oh  God!"  We  do  not  need  di- 
vine investigation.  We  have  enough  self-revelation  to  make  us  better  if  only 
we  had  the  will  and  the  faith  necessary  to  bring  us  back  into  the  paths 
which  lead  us  to  humility  and  righteousness.  Increasing  divorce  is  one  of 
the  strongest  evidences  of  our  departure  from  the  way  set  by  divine  will. 

After  the  war,  when  our  present  social,  economic,  and  political  insti- 
tutions will  witness  a  vast  disintegration,  there  may  come  to  the  world  a 
higher  standard  of  justice  and  faith.  Much  of  the  old  must  pass,  for  it  is 
already  in  a  state  of  decay.  There  is  scarcely  a  condition  of  life  that  the 
war  does  not  touch  in  some  vital  manner.  From  it  will  come  a  period  of 
reconstruction,  a  period  every  thoughtful  man  should  study. 

Law  of  God. — "The  man  is  not  without  the  woman  in  the  Lord,  neither 
the  woman  without  the  man."  In  marriage  is  to  be  found  the  highest 
estate  of  man  or  woman.  Divorces  are  permitted  by  the  Church  though 
they  are  greatly  deplored.  (Doc.  and  Cov.  42:22,23;  49:15;  83:2;  132:18-20; 
I  Cor.  11:11,12.) 


XXV — Race  Suicide 

Theory. — This  subject  is  apparently  as  old  as  the  human  race.  It  has 
rested  in  the  past  as  it  rests  in  the  present,  upon  the  relative  conditions  of 
production  and  consumption.  Theoretically,  and  argumentatively,  it  may 
be  said  that  if  the  normal  increase  of  human  life  went  on  without  decimina- 
tion  by  war  or  disease,  the  world  would  find  it  difficult  to  produce  from 
all  its  known  agencies  the  amount  required  for  the  sustenance  of  the  human 
race. 

There  are,  however,  a  number  of  forces  in  operation  which  are  con- 
stantly tending  toward  the  restriction  of  life.  These  forces  or  agencies  have 
been  counted  upon  to  keep  a  normal  balance  without  man's  interference 
viciously  with  the  laws  of  life.  Whatever  may  be  our  theory  about  God's 
purposes  in  the  world  and  the  conduct  of  nations  toward  one  another,  it  is 
certain  that  social  forces  are  constantly  acting  in  restraint  of  life  and  toward 
the  destruction  of  life.  These  social  conditions  represent  man's  agency,  his 
rebellion  against  the  laws  of  God,  his  intelligence,  and  his  fall  from  the 
highest  state  of  his  creation.  We  need  not  attribute  wars  to  God.  Neither 
need  we  assign  to  him  the  causes  of  pestilence,  famine  and  all  sorts  of  dis- 
eases. It  is  a  common  world  in  which  we  live,  and  nature  is  so  regulated 
since  the  Creation  that  it  is  constantly  working  off  waste  or  fetid  matter 
and  taking  on  new  life.  It  is  doing  so  with  the  human  family.  It  is  true 
we  cannot  reach  satisfactory  conclusions  about  the  origin  or  even  the  jus- 
tice, from  a  finite  point  of  view,  of  all  these  unfavorable  conditions  to 
our  existence. 

The  question,  then,  of  race  suicide  from  the  beginning  is  largely  a 
question  of  whether  man  shall  use  violent  and  artificial  means  to  add  to 
the  limitations  or  destruction  of  life.  Shall  he  not  rather  leave  the  question 
of  the  earth'  population  to  those  conditions,  those  calamities  and  destruc- 
tions which  of  themselves  from  all  time  have  been  sufficient  to  keep  a  nor- 
mal balance  between  the  needs  and  the  production  of  the  world's  animals 
and  man? 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  59 

Methods. — A  little  more  than  a  century  ago  a  writer  by  the  name  of 
Malthus  took  up  the  question  of  the  world's  population,  and  in  an  academic 
way  sought  to  prove  that  some  restraint  must  be  put  by  man  himself  upon 
life  in  order  to  prevent  the  world  from  the  fate  of  sure  starvation  if  the 
human  family  were  permitted  to  go  on  and  people  the  earth  more  rapidly 
than  it  was  able  to  provide  for  the  people's  sustenance.  In  the  case  of  race 
suicide,  as  in  the  case  of  numerous  other  instances,  men  have  set  up  arti- 
ficial means  in  the  place  of  those  which  in  the  nature  of  things  belong  to 
social  life  and  the  laws  of  nature.  What  would  happen  to  this  world  of 
ours  were  the  ideals  of  the  Malthusian  theory  to  prevail?  But  that  is  really 
beside  the  mark.  The  judgments  of  God  have  a  very  distinct  place  in  the 
annals  of  history,  and  then  there  is  the  further  fact  that  men  have  brought 
down  upon  them  destruction  by  reason  of  their  own  retrograding  movements. 

Ancient  Practices. — Let  us  see  how  the  ancient  world  undertook  in  its 
crude  and  cruel  manner  what  in  these  days  we  are  seeking  to  do  by  more 
refined  means.  Here  it  may  be  well  to  remark  that  what  we  call  civilization 
is  not  always  progress.  Civilization  too  often  has  within  it  refined  means 
of  accomplishing  ends  that  were  sought  in  the  barbarous  ages  by  more  cruel 
and  inhuman  methods.  In  the  early  stages  of  history  race  suicide  was  ac- 
complished both  through  religious  and  economic  purposes.  The  early  in- 
habitants of  Asia  had  a  practice  of  offering  up  their  first-born  in  order  to 
propitiate  their  idolatrous  gods.  When  the  Israelites  had  settled  in  the  Land 
of  Promise,  they  found  a  people  there  who  were  practicing  human  sacrifice. 
In  the  days  of  Israel's  glory  which  shone  about  the  throne  of  Solomon,  the 
God  Moloch  was  set  up  in  the  Valley  of  the  Hinnon,  just  below  the  City  of 
David  on  the  west,  and  there  infants  were  offered  in  the  fiery  furnace  of 
this  heathen  god.  Among  the  tribes  of  Australia  and  the  islands  of  the 
South  Pacific  there  grew  up  a  practice  of  burying  children  alive  because 
they  were  wanted  by  parents  or  relatives  that  were  waiting  for  them  on  the 
other  side. 

Again  various  tribes  that  were  nomadic  in  character  often  destroyed 
their  children  because  in  moving  from  place  to  place  they  could  not  care 
for  them.  These  human  sacrifices  were  generally  performed  by  the  men, 
but  in  some  of  the  lowest  tribes  the  mothers  joined  in  this  hideous  religious 
rite.  Along  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  out  of  the  control  of  the  English,  chil- 
dren were  destroyed  by  mothers,  and  there  was  a  belief  among  the  Kaffir 
population  of  South  Africa  that  unless  they  laid  a  lump  of  earth  upon  the 
mouths  of  their  children  and  thus  produced  death,  the  parents  would  lose 
their  strength. 

Madagascar  was  also  noted  for  its  infanticides.  There  were  certain  so- 
called  unlucky  days.  Children  born  on  such  days  were  put  to  death  as  unfit 
to  live.  If  a  child  cried  at  its  birth,  it  was  unlucky  and  death  for  it  was 
preferable  to  life.  In  South  America  there  existed  in  earlier  times  the  prac- 
tice of  burying  children  alive.  The  Guanos  restricted  their  family  to  two 
children. 

In  Takelaus  or  Line  Islands  the  husband  decided  how  many  children 
should  live  according  to  the  amount  of  land  which  the  head  of  the  family 
possessed. 

It  may  be  said  that  in  the  race  suicide  practice  of  the  ancients  there 
always  existed  the  belief  that  it  was  better  to  destroy  the  girls.  In  some 
places  the  reasons  given  were  religious  but  they  were  often  economic,  since 
they  were  non-producers.  And  then  there  was  the  further  reason  that  by 
killing  girl  babies  they  help  to  keep  an  equilibrium  between  the  males 
and  the  females  since  many  males  would  naturally  be  destroyed  through  the 
incessant  warfare  of  those  uncivilized  tribes. 

When  the  English  conquered  India  they  found  there  the  same  disposi- 
tion to  practice  race  suicide.  Wives  were  placed  on  the  funeral  pyres  of 
their  dead  husbands.  Female  children  were  drowned  in  the  Ganges. 

Illustrations.— Behind  these  religious  pretensions  there  was  also  un- 
doubtedly an  economic  purpose  and  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the  inhabitants 
to  shirk  the  responsibility  which  parentage  brought  upon  them. 


60  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

"Infanticide,  which  until  now  has  gone  unpunished  [says  Dr. 
Lauterer]  is  practiced  especially  in  Pekin  and  Fuhkien.  A  large  per 
cent  of  female  infants  meet  with  an  unnatural  death  because  of  their 
parents'  poverty  or  their  niggardliness.  The  unfortunates  are  simply 
cast  into  the  nearest  stream  and  the  corpses  left  until  the  morning 
when  the  government's  wagon  collects  them,  or  they  are  exposed  in 
the  open  where,  not  being  protected  from  the  cold,  they  soon  perish. 
Lately  a  decree  has  been  made  to  prohibit  it." 

"The  Province  of  Fuhkien  [says  Douglas]  is  that  in  which  this 
crime  most  obtains.  Inquiries  show  that  in  many  districts  as  large  a 
portion  as  one-fourth  of  the  female  children  born  are  destroyed  at 
birth.  At  Pekin,  on  the  other  hand,  it  cannot  be  said  to  exist  at  all. 
But  in  this  as  in  so  many  social  offenses  in  China,  the  sword  of  the 
law,  which  is  alone  capable  of  putting  down  crime,  is  allowed  to 
hang  like  a  rusty  weapon  on  the  wall.  It  is  true  that  occasionally 
proclamations  are  issued  in  which  heinousness  of  the  evil  is  explained 
with  all  the  impressiveness  that  could  be  desired,  but  so  long  as  nat- 
ural affection  finds  no  support  from  without  it  will  continue,  in  China, 
to  yield  the  requirements  of  daily  food." 

"Modern  writers  on  Japan  lay  stress  on  the  affection  of  the  Jap- 
anese for  their  children,  and  yet  'during  the  famine  of  1905  many  girls 
who  had  been  sold  by  suffering  parents  were  redeemed  by  the  Chris- 
tians.' This  sacrifice  of  children  to  the  welfare  of  the  parents  is  trace- 
able to  the  influence  of  Confucius.  To  the  same  source  may  be  as- 
cribed the  fact  that,  though  in  ancient  times  the  female  sex  was  prom- 
inent in  Japan,  after  the  introduction  of  Confucianism  the  Samurai 
considered  it  beneath  him  to  even  converse  with  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren. 'Neither  God  nor  the  ladies  inspired  any  enthusiasm  in  the 
Samurai's  heart,'  says  Professor  Chamberlain.  For  is  it  not  written 
by  the  great  moralist  Karbara  Ekken,  in  the  Owna  Dargaku,  'It  was 
the  custom  of  the  ancients,  on  the  birth  of  a  female  child,  to  let  it 
lie  on  the  floor  for  the  space  of  three  days.  Even  in  this  may  be  seen 
the  likening  of  the  man  to  heaven  and  of  the  woman  to  earth." 

"Ever  since  the  beginning  of  that  indefinite  period  which  we  call 
'modern  times'  the  birth  of  a  child  has  always  been  an  occasion  for 
rejoicing.  To  be  sure,  in  Japan  that  joy  was  very  much  greater  when 
it  was  a  boy  baby;  yet  the  Japanese  have  never  displayed  such  intense 
dislike  to  girl  babies  as  have  the  Chinese.  One  great  reason  for  this 
was  that  the  population  of  Japan  was  not  so  dense  as  it  is  in  China. 
It  was  easier  to  provide  for  children,  and  therefore  there  was  no  in- 
centive to  put  girl  babies  out  of  the  way.  I  am  sorry  to  say  that 
very  lately,  since  the  Russo-Japanese  war  (1904-5),  when  the  Japanese 
people  are  almost  crushed  by  the  weight  of  taxes  to  provide  money 
with  which  to  pay  war  expenses  and  to  keep  up  army  and  navy,  the 
number  of  cases  of  female  infanticide  is  increasing  alarmingly." 

Semitic  Races. — It  may  be  well  here  in  passing  to  note  that  the  Israelites 
and  kindred  races  were  not  given  as  a  rule  to  the  practice  of  infanticide. 
The  offering  of  human  life  was  forbidden  them,  and  in  lieu  of  a  command 
which  God  gave  to  Abraham  to  offer  up  his  son  Isaac,  he  provided  for 
Abraham  a  "ram  in  the  thicket."  The  Israelites  were  commanded,  according 
to  the  law,  to  make  sacrificial  offerings  of  certain  animals.  The  law  of 
sacrifice  is  as  universal  and  as  old  as  the  race.  It  also  has  certain  divine  sup- 
port. It  was  practiced  by  Abel  and  Cain  and  the  law  of  sacrifice  was  typical 
of  that  culminating  sacrifice  of  God  in  which  he  offered  his  Son  as  a  sacri- 
ficial atonement  for  the  sins  of  the  world. 

Man,  however,  in  the  practice  of  his  sacrifices,  has  substituted  his  own 
ideas  and  emotions  for  the  purpose  and  plans  of  God,  for  the  only  true 
order  of  sacrifice  which  God  himself  instituted,  and  which  is  also  typical 
of  the  thousand  sacrifices  we  make  of  the  flesh-in  the  processes  of  our  earthly 
progression.  The  infidel  objections  to  the  sacrifice  of  Jesus  are  founded 
upon  the  practice  of  sacrifice  in  the  heathen  world. 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  61 


XXV— Race  Suicide  (Continued) 

Factory  System. — In  time  the  barbarous  practice  of  the  uncivilized  na- 
tions which  fell  under  the  rule  of  the  white  man  were  forbidden  by  their 
modern  rulers;  but  a  new  industrial  age  grew  up  in  which  economic  con- 
ditions changed.  The  civilization  of  the  last  century  made  provision  for 
the  employment  of  child  labor.  They  no  longer  sold  children,  but  at  the 
same  time  parents  were  permitted  to  put  out  their  children  to  apprentice- 
ship which  amounted  to  a  partial  sale,  as  they  were  subject  to  the  control 
and  punishment  of  their  masters.  There  was  no  longer  a  deliberate  infanti- 
cide but  there  was  the  creation  of  conditions  that  were  extremely  destructive 
to  infant  life.  The  destruction  still  went  on  in  a  more  refined  way,  indi- 
rectly, it  is  true;  but  it  was  destruction  nevertheless  of  human  life.  The 
factory  and  apprenticeship  systems  prevailed  through  a  number  of  decades 
until  their  cruel  methods  were  abolished  by  law.  I  quote  from  Payne: 

"The  children  who  were  apprenticed  out  to  the  mill-owners  were 
fed  on  the  coarsest  kind  of  food  and  in  the  most  disgusting  way. 
They  slept  by  turns,  in  relays,  in  beds  that  were  never  aired,  for  one 
set  of  children  were  turned  into  the  beds  as  soon  as  another  set  had 
been  driven  out  to  their  long  and  filthy  toil.  Some  tried  to  run  away 
and  after  that  they  were  worked  with  chains  around  their  ankles; 
many  died  and  the  little  graves  were  unmarked  in  a  desolate  spot  lest 
the  number  of  the  dead  attract  too  much  attention. 

"Sixteen  hours  a  day,  six  days  a  week,  was  no  uncommon  time  for 
children,  and  on  Sunday  they  worked  to  clean  the  machine. 

"In  stench,  in  heated  rooms,  amid  the  constant  whirling  of  a  thou- 
sand wheels,  little  fingers  and  little  feet  were  kept  in  ceaseless  action, 
forced  into  unnatural  activity  by  blows  from  the  heavy  hands  and  feet 
of  the  merciless  overlooker,  and  the  infliction  of  bodily  pain  by  in- 
struments of  punishment,  invented  by  the  sharpened  ingenuity  of  in- 
satiable selfishness. 

"The  agitation  against  these  conditions  led,  in  1802,  to  an  Act 
being  passed  by  the  influence  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  for  the  preservation 
of  the  health  and  morals  of  apprentices  and  others  employed  in  cot- 
ton or  other  mills. 

"The  immediate  cause  of  this  was  the  fearful  spread  through  the 
factories  in  the  Manchester  district  of  epidemic  diseases  due  to  over- 
work, scanty  food,  wretched  clothing,  long  hours,  bad  ventilation, 
among  the  working  people  and  especially  among  the  children. 

"As  far  as  reforming  the  conditions  in  which  the  children  lived, 
the  Act,  however,  was  a  dead  letter,  and  in  a  debate  introduced  by 
Sir  Robert  Peel  on  June  6,  1815,  one  speaker,  Horner,  told  of  the  sale 
of  a  gang  of  children  with  the  effects  of  a  bankrupt. 

"  'A  still  more  atrocious  instance,'  continued  the  speaker,  *had 
been  brought  before  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  two  years  ago,  when 
a  number  of  these  boys  apprenticed  by  a  parish  in  London  to  one 
manufacturer  had  been  transferred  (i.  e.,  sold)  to  another  and  had 
been  found  by  some  benevolent  persons  in  a  state  of  absolute  fam- 
ine.'" 

In  our  own  country  the  disregard  of  child  life  had  become  appalling. 
There  was  the  same  temptation  here  that  existed  in  England — the  temptation 
to  disregard  both  human  life  and  human  happiness  by  the  sacrifice  of  chil- 
dren upon  the  altar  of  Mammon.  Even  now  reforms  are  agitated  in  the 
interest  of  the  children  of  the  Southern  States  and  the  conditions  of  health 
are  not  the  most  favorable  in  many  of  the  larger  manufacturing  cities  of 
New  England. 

Childbirth  Control. — We  have  no  sooner,  however,  brought  about  great 
amelioration  in  the  employment  of  children  and  stopped  the  inhuman  sac- 
rifice of  their  lives  in  the  factory  and  apprenticeship  systems  that  have  pre- 


62  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

vailed  too  long  on  the  Continent  and  in  the  United  States,  than  we  are 
confronted  by  a  new — some  say,  a  more  refined  system  of  race  suicide — the 
prevention  of  childbirth.  It  is  a  part  of  the  newest  and  latest  in  the  civ- 
ilized life  of  the  world.  Men  shut  their  eyes  to  the  consequences  because 
it  has  more  to  do  with  future  generations  than  with  the  present.  It  has 
not  the  cruel  aspect  of  ancient  infanticide,  but  it  is  intended,  as  we  are  told, 
for  economic  reasons.  The  truth  of  the  matter  is,  men  and  women  are  much 
less  concerned  about  social  welfare  than  they  are  about  their  own  selfish 
advantages. 

The  present  problem  of  race  suicide  has  in  it  quite  a  number  of  factors. 
There  is  first  the  practice  of  childbirth  prevention  under  the  slogan  of 
fewer  and  better  children.  The  fallacy  of  this  pretense  has  been  demon- 
strated by  scientific  inquiry  into  family  life.  Besides,  Nature  is  known 
everywhere  to  produce  her  best  achievements  under  normal  conditions.  A 
few  years  ago  this  practice  had  grown  to  an  alarming  extent  in  France  where 
deaths  exceeded  births.  The  same  practice  gradually  grew  in  England  and 
in  the  United  States,  and  latterly  it  has  become  even  alarming  to  the  Ger- 
mans who  are  anxious  for  population  and  not  very  scrupulous  about  the 
legitimacy  of  their  children.  It  was  the  old,  old  story  again — the  necessity 
of  crutailing,  for  the  economic  benefit  of  the  world,  the  dangerous  increase 
to  population.  Had  these  nations  that  began  the  practice  of  race  suicide 
only  recently  awaited  patiently  coming  events,  they  would  have  found  their 
nefarious  system  of  race  suicide  entirely  unnecessary,  since  the  great  war 
has  destroyed  so  much  life  and  gives  promise  of  continuing  the  destruction 
through  famine,  pestilence  and  disease.  At  present  it  is  the  wholesale  de- 
struction of  manhood  which  is  likely  to  disturb  very  greatly  the  equilibrium 
of  the  sexes.  The  processes,  however,  of  destruction  will  not  end  with  the 
war  whose  hardships  will  draw  heavily  upon  both  female  and  male  child  life. 
It  is  a  little  early,  therefore,  to  speculate  about  what  will  be  necessary  in 
view  of  this  disturbed  equilibrium. 

Vice  and  Sterility. — Another  factor  making  for  the  curtailment  of  child 
life  is  the  rapid  and  alarming  increase  of  sterility  among  all  civilized 
nations.  This  sterility  has  been  brought  about  mostly  through  the  vices, 
which  the  present  war,  by  one  means  or  another,  has  uncovered.  To  the 
positive  moral  vices  which  have  helped  to  increase  sterility,  there  may  also 
be  added  the  vices  which  grow  out  of  human  indulgence,  such  as  drink, 
excessive  food,  fashions,  and  all  sorts  of  pleasures.  Indeed  the  whole 
trend  of  modern  life  is  away  from  the  path  of  our  divinely  appointed  re- 
quirements. 

The  evils  of  an  age  which. begin  in  rivulets  soon  swell  by  commingling 
into  a  torrent  that  becomes  quite  irresistible.  There  are  specious  arguments 
set  forth  by  those  who  point  to  the  high  cost  of  child  life.  There  are 
medical  fees,  drug  bills,  nurses,  hospitals,  and  a  host  of  overwhelming 
burdens  which  parents  declare  themselves  unable  to  bear.  Many  support 
their  practices  on  the  economic  distress  which  they  feel  from  their  fulfil- 
ment of  God's  requirements.  It  is  a  serious  problem.  When  evils  multiply 
in  such  a  fashion  they  bring  along  with  them  a  whole  train  of  so-called 
invincible  arguments, — arguments  which  pacify,  excuse,  then  justify. 

A  great  wave  of  exictement  is  now  moving  over  the  world  on  the 
question  of  race  suicide.  Recently  Mrs.  Margaret  Sanger  was  imprisoned 
in  New  York  because  of  her  propaganda  of  child  birth  control.  The  doc- 
tors of  New  York  have  held  sessions  upon  its  advisability.  There  is  a 
division  of  sentiment  among  them,  though  the  great  majority  are  con- 
vinced that  they  must  abide  by  the  law,  which  some  think  ought  to  be 
repealed. 

Great  movements  for  the  preservation  of  child  life,  for  the  education 
and  training  of  children,  have  now  the  endorsement  and  assistance  of 
thousands  of  women, — Mothers'  Societies,  many  of  them  made  up  largely  of 
unmarried  women  well  along  in  years.  Many  of  these  societies  have  their 
members  in  the  homes  of  mothers  whose  children  require  special  attention, 
but  that  is  only  a  symptom.  The  real  cause  must  be  sought  elsewhere. 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  63 

I  quote  at  length  from  Ex-President  Roosevelt  and   Prof.  Conklin   of 
Princeton,  in  the  Metropolitan  of  October,  1917: 

"Reforms  are  excellent,  but  if  there  is  nobody  to  reform  their 
value  becomes  somewhat  problematical.  In  order  to  make  a  man 
into  a  better  citizen  we  must  first  have  the  man.  In  order  that  there 
shall  be  a  'fuller  and  better  expressed  life  for  the  average  woman,' 
that  average  woman  must  be  in  actual  existence.  And  the  first  neces- 
sity in  'bringing  up  the  child  right'  is  to  produce  the  child. 

"Stated  in  the  abstract,  these  propositions  are  of  bromidic  trite- 
ness. But  an  astonishingly  large  number  of  persons,  including  a 
lamentably  large  number  who  call  themselves  social  reformers,  either 
are,  or  act  as  if  they  were,  utterly  blind  to  them  when  they  try  to 
deal  with  life  in  the  concrete.  This  is  true  of  every  group  of  persons 
who  treat  Bernard  Shaw  seriously  as  a  social  reformer.  It  is  true  of 
every  group  of  reformers  who  discuss  the  home  and  the  school,  but 
regard  it  as  indelicate  to  lay  stress  on  the  fact  that  neither  is  worth 
discussing  unless  there  are  children  in  sufficient  numbers  to  make 
the  home  and  the  school  worth  perpetuating.  It  is  true  of  all  blatant 
sham  reformers  who,  in  the  name  of  a  new  morality,  preach  the  old, 
old  vice  and  self-indulgence  which  rotted  out  first  the  moral  fiber  and 
then  even  the  external  greatness  of  Greece  and  Rome.  It  is  true  of 
the  possibly  well-meaning  but  certainly  silly  persons  who  fail  to  see 
that  we  merely  enunciate  a  perfectly  plain  mathematical  truth  when 
we  say  that  the  race  will  die  out  unless  the  average  family  contains 
at  least  three  children,  and  therefore  that  less  than  this  number  always 
means  that,  whether  because  of  their  fault  or  their  misfortune,  the 
parents  are  bearing  less  than  their  share  of  the  common  burdens, 
and  are  rendering  less  than  their  proportion  of  patriotic  service  to  the 
nation.44 
Speaking  of  the  graduates  of  Harvard  and  Yale,  he  further  says: 

"On  the  average,  during  the  thirty  years,  the  graduate  who  mar- 
ried did  so  after  he  had  left  college  eight  years.  About  78  per  cent 
married,  roughly  four-fifths.  But  over  20  per  cent  of  the  marriages 
were  childless.  This  leaves  only  three-fifths  of  the  men  of  the  class 
who  contracted  fertile  marriages,  and  who,  therefore,  if  their  stock 
were  to  progress,  had  to  make  good  the  shortcomings  of  their  fellows. 
The  average  number  of  children  per  capita  married  graduate 
was  about  2.3,  and  shrank  decade  by  decade.  Taking  the  entire  num- 
ber of  graduates  the  average  number  of  children  surviving  was  1.55 
per  capita  (of  whom,  of  course,  on  the  average,  half  are  daughters). 
This  means,  roughly,  that  in  these  thirty  classes  of  Harvard  and  Yale 
graduates,  representing,  of  course,  a  high  average  of  the  energy,  am- 
bition and  cultivation,  and  a  reasonably  high  average  of  the  wealth 
of  the  land,  every  four  fathers  left  behind  them  three  sons.  If  this 
ratio  continues  it  will  mean  that  140  years  hence — a  period  as  long 
as  that  which  divides  us  from  the  Declaration  of  Independence — the 
average  college  graduates  of  today  will  be  represented  in  their  de- 

scendents  by  only  three-tenths  of  their  present  number." 

************ 

"In  Massachusetts,  for  the  twenty-five  years  ending  in  1911,  the 
deaths  among  the  native-born  population  exceeded  the  births  by 
270,000,  whereas  during  the  same  period  the  births  in  families  with 
foreign-born  parents  exceeded  the  deaths  by  nearly  530,000.  If  this 
process  continues  the  work  of  perfecting  the  boasted  common  school 
and  college  system  of  Massachusetts'  native  Americans  will  prove 
about  as  useful  as  the  labor  of  those  worthy  missionaries  who  on 
different  occasions  have  translated  the  Bible  into  the  tongues  of  sav- 
age races  who  thereupon  died  out." 

Prof.  Conklin  writes: 

"The  cause  for  alarm  is  the  declining  birth  rate  in  the  best  ele- 


64  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

ments  of  a  population,  while  it  continues  to  increase  among  the  poorer 
elements.  The  descendants  of  the  Puritans  and  the  Cavaliers,  who 
have  raised  the  cry  for  'fewer  and  better  children,'  are  already  dis- 
appearing, and  in  a  few  centuries,  at  most,  will  have  given  place  to 
more  fertile  races  of  mankind.  *  *  *  if  we  had  fewer  luxuries  we 
could  have,  and  could  afford  to  have,  more  children.  *  *  *  "^e 
need  not  'fewer  and  better  children'  but  more  children  of  the  better 
sort  and  fewer  of  the  worse  variety.  There  is  great  enthusiasm  today 
on  the  part  of  many  childless  reformers  for  negative  eugenical  meas- 
ures. (They  forget  that)  sterility  is  too  easily  acquired;  what  is  not 
so  easily  brought  about  is  the  fertility  of  the  better  lines.  *  *  * 
The  chief  motive  for  limiting  the  size  of  families  is  personal  comfort 
and  pleasure  rather  than  the  welfare  of  the  race.  It  is  more  im-; 
portant  for  the  welfare  of  the  race  that  children  with  good  inheritance 
(in  mind,  body  and  will)  should  be  brought  into  the  world  than  that 
parents  should  live  easy  lives  and  have  no  more  children  than  they 
can  conveniently  rear  amid  all  the  comforts  of  a  luxury-loving  age. 
*  *  *  Race  preservation,  not  self-preservation,  is  the  first  law  of 
nature.  Among  the  higher  organisms,  the  strongest  of  all  the  instincts 
are  those  connected  with  reproduction.  The  struggle  to  be  free  is 
part  of  a  great  evolutionary  movement,  but  the  freedom  must  be  a 
sane  one,  which  neither  injures  others  nor  eliminates  posterity.  (Any 
movement  which)  demands  freedom  from  marriage  and  reproduction 
is  suicidal." 

The  Latter-day  Saints,  in  the  simplicity  of  their  faith,  are  perfectly 
willing  to  trust  the  conditions  of  life  and  the  purposes  of  God  for  the  main- 
tenance of  an  equilibrium  between  man's  power  of  production  and  his 
needs.  History  has  shown  abundantly  that  infanticide  and  race  suicide 
were  never  a  necessity.  The  punishment  which  the  world  has  invited  upon 
itself  in  the  various  ages  has  been  sufficient  to  remove  all  fears  of  an  over- 
populated  world.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  not  a  case  of  economic  necessity. 
The  reasons  are  found  through  the  perversion  of  God's  laws  and  the  ex- 
cesses of  life  which  selfish  indulgence  creates.  They  are  with  the  old 
prophets, — they  believe  that  children  are  the  heritage  of  the  Lord  and 
"blessed  is  he  that  has  his  quiver  full."  Their  compensation  comes  to  them 
through  the  assured  value  of  child  life.  With  Jesus,  they  rejoice  in  the 
words:  "Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not,  for 
of  such  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven." 


XXVI— Music 

History. — It  is  from  the  historical  and  moral  side  that  I  approach  this 
subject,  which  is  as  old  as  the  human  race,  and  as  diversified  as  human  life. 
Of  all  the  arts  and  accomplishments  given  for  the  entertainment  and 
pleasure  of  man,  none  has  been  a  greater  source  of  pleasure.  It  exalts, 
refines,  ennobles,  soothes,  and  heals  the  human  heart.  It  also  entices, 
charms,  and  persuades  the  human  soul  to  leave  its  moral  anchorage  and 
enter  the  realms  of  dissipation  and  vice.  Music,  as  it  comes  from  instru- 
ments, is  an  unspoken  language,  but  saturated  with  every  suggestion  of 
human  thought  and  feeling.  As  an  expression  of  the  human  emotions,  it 
has  both  a  moral  and  a  licentious  aspect.  It  has  been  made  more  dangerous 
to  human  life  because  it  is  usually  unsuspected  of  any  wrong.  It  may 
beguile  and  seduce  those  who,  in  the  beginning,  could  not  be  touched  by 
any  other  form  of  pleasure  that  entices  to  wrong-doing. 

Dangers. — I  speak  first  of  the  dangers  of  music.  The  vibrations  of  our 
inner  life  are  set  in  motion  by  this  royal  pastime.  It  enters  the  domain  of 
our  thoughts  and  feelings,  mostly  of  our  feelings.  These  it  helps  us  to 
conceal,  but  the  vibrations  of  thought  and  feeling,  once  set  in  motion,  carry 
us  on  to  action.  From  the  earliest  times,  music  has  been  the  companion  of 
evil  consorts.  Its  value  has  been  fully  known,  not  only  in  the  dens  of  vice, 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  65 

but  in  the  palaces  where  excessive  luxuries  and  insinuating  corruptions  find 
a  guilded  home.  The  world  has  long  known  the  evil  of  certain  entertain- 
ments. It  has  known  the  effects  it  has  had  in  the  baudy  house,  the  bar- 
room, and  the  promiscuous  dancehall.  Moral  loving  communities  would 
not  tolerate  for  one  moment  in  their  homes  the  companionship  of  the  lewd, 
the  frivolously  gay,  and  the  licentious  devotees  of  the  dance.  They  believe 
they  have  abolished  corrupting  evils  when  they  have  drawn  the  line  which 
excludes  the  men  and  women  who  symbolize  them.  That  is  but  one  step: 
the  music  that  helps  to  beget  a  vitiated  life  they  often  admit  without  ques- 
tion even  to  the  inner  sanctuaries  of  their  homes.  Who  has  not  stopped  to 
listen,  as  he  passed  along  the  road,  to  some  music  in  the  home,  to  wonder 
how  such  strains  of  immoral  tones  could  be  permitted  there?  The  fact  is, 
people  never  suspect  that  there  can  be  an  immoral  sound,  when  the  truth  is, 
immoral  sounds  have  helped  from  the  beginning  to  beget  immoral  lives. 

Oriental  Vice. — Some  years  ago,  when  the  writer  was  in  Egypt,  he  was 
invited  to  witness  some  dance  scenes  that  gave  an  illustration  of  the  con- 
tortions and  immoral  movements  of  the  human  body.  These  motions  were 
set  to  music,  and  he  was  told  that  men  often  resorted  to  these  musical  dem- 
onstrations that  they  might  enjoy  all  the  more  later  on  the  vices  into  which 
they  were  about  to  cast  themselves.  Along  the  quays  of  the  great  oriental 
cities,  where  vice  runs  rampant,  music  acts  as  the  siren  which  charms  men 
from  their  onward  course  in  life  to  the  sinful  intonations  of  the  dance  hall 
and  evil  resorts.  There  is  a  kindred  between  tone  and  motion:  sound  is 
said  to  move  along  in  waves;  it  has  its  rhythm.  These  waves  create  move- 
ments, thoughts,  and  feelings  that  are  in  harmony  with  them.  Strange  that 
every  blessed  thing  which  God  revealed  to  man,  Satan  has  been  present  to 
deform;  that  what  was  intended  for  exaltation  may  be  turned  to  debase- 
ment,— and  after  all,  we  have  hardly  suspected  that  such  was  true  of  music. 

Emotions. — We  now  have  the  rag-time,  and  the  "Jazz"  that  may  be  wit- 
nessed on  the  dancing  floors  of  our  resorts.  The  contortions  of  the  body 
give  rise  to  contortions  of  the  mind.  One  might  easily  imagine  as  he 
looked  on  the  ball-room  scenes  of  some  pleasure  resort,  that  he  had  been 
taken  back  to  the  voluptuary  gardens  of  ancient  times,  and  to  the  days  of 
Rome  and  Greece,  when  the  Jazz,  under  another  name,  was  corrupting, 
undermining  the  social  life  of  the  nations  who  gave  themselves  up  to  its 
indulgences.  It  is  the  old,  old  story  that  evil  companions  corrupt  good 
morals,  and  there  is  an  evil  companionship  in  music. 

Exalting. — But  music  exalts,  it  refines,  ennobles,  and  charms  with  the 
spirits  of  virtue  the  human  soul.  We  have  our  music:  we  aim  in  the 
early  periods  of  life  so  to  saturate  our  youth  with  the  sweet,  innocent  strains 
of  the  Sabbath  school  song  that  it  will  take  possession  of  them,  and  leave 
little  room  for  the  music  whose  vulgar  tones  would  invite  them  into  an 
erring  life. 

The  emotions  of  the  soul  are  real.  There  is  a  rhythm  in  life;  we  re- 
spond to  the  subtle  influences  that  we  cannot  see,  we  cannot  analyze,  we 
can  only  feel.  If  we  would  have  a  correct  balance  of  life,  and  its  elements 
properly  mixed  within  us,  we  should  not  exclude  music  any  more  than  we 
exclude  prayer.  It  should  be  in  our  homes,  to  encourage  and  to  fortify  us. 
Thus,  we  sing  in  the  Sabbath  schools  songs  that  awaken  our  religious  emo- 
tions, our  patriotism,  our  devotion,  our  worshipful  thoughts.  We  sing,  too, 
in  congregations,  that  the  harmony  in  one  soul  may  be  the  harmony  in  all. 
Our  children  gather  in  concerts  and  enjoy  the  mutual  helpfulness  of  con- 
gregational songs. 

It  is  not  easy  to  define  the  line  of  cleavage  between  two  forms  of 
music,  but  in  a  general  way  they  must  be  distinguished.  Nor  is  it  always 
a  matter  of  art:  perhaps  a  soul  attuned  to  the  worship  of  God  might  more 
readily  detect  an  improper  coloring  to  music  than  the  finest  artist.  The 
hymns  of  John  Wesley  have  had  a  marvelous  influence  upon  the  religious 
emotions.  The  older  generations  will  remember  how  fond  our  late  Presi- 
dent, Brigham  Young,  was  of  these  devotional  hymns.  We  have  endeavored 


66  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

to  make  such  a  classification  as  would  put  our  musical  life  on  the  moral 
side  of  sound. 

Jazz. — There  is  perhaps  no  more  sinful  temptation  among  our  young 
people  today  than  the  insinuating  sounds  that  come  from  the  siren  voice  of 
a  license-loving  age.  The  thoughtful  world  is  just  beginning  to  realize  how 
far  the  Jazz  and  kindred  music  is  carrying  us  from  the  moorings  of  our 
moral  safety.  I  quote  from  a  writer  in  the  Chicago  Herald,  of  November  4, 
1917.  There  the  celebrated  violinist,  Isador  Berger,  says: 

"The  white  man  took  the  negro's  'Jungle  time'  and  'ragged'  it 
unmercifully.  It  was  a  great  success  among  people  who  preferred 
not  to  consider  the  moral  phases  of  the  question.  Clergymen  and 
social  service  forces  over  the  country  stormed  against  this  kind  of 
music,  calling  it  'obscene,  indecent,  demoralizing,  etc.,'  but  the  world 
that  loved  amusement  for  its  own  sake  went  on  acclaiming  'jazz' 
tunes  as  the  acme  of  entertainment. 

"But  when  America  went  into  the  war  the  song  writers  turned 
to  patriotic  tunes.  They  began  to  turn  out  marching  tunes  in  the 
hope  that  the  soldiers  would  seize  upon  one  for  their  favorite  and 
make  for  its  authors  the  amount  of  money  which  the  British  'Tom- 
mies' made  for  the  writers  of  'It's  a  Long,  Long  Way  to  Tipperary.' 

"Cafes,  tea  dansants,  dancing  pavilions,  are  tingling  now  with 
these  stirring  martial  airs.  Some  of  the  old  ragtime  tunes  still  'hang 
on,'  but  half-heartedly,  as  though  they  knew  it,  like  other  soft,  lux- 
urious things,  they  must  disappear  before  the  strident  note  of  war. 

"  'War  music  arouses  the  best  in  man,  while  "jazz"  music  appeals 
to  the  lowest  elements  in  his  nature,'  says  Louis  Guyon,  a  dancing 
master  of  Chicago  who  has  won  great  prosperity  for  himself  by  re- 
fusing to  permit  the  modern  dances  to  be  performed  on  his  mammoth 
floor.  'I  have  always  fought  the  "ragtime"  dance  as  immoral,  in- 
decent and  vulgar,  and  I  have  found  that  thousands  of  people  still 
felt  that  the  old-time  waltz,  two-step  and  polka  were  totally  different 
from  the  "jazz"  measures. 

"'Marching  tunes  and  martial  music  are  written  in  a  tempo  that 
does  not  lend  itself  to  syncopation.' 

"Legitimate  music  appeals  to  human  feeling  and  soulful  apprecia- 
tion. It  makes  the  mind  'dreamy'  and  imaginative.  It  does  not 
excite  base  thoughts.  It  may  develop  abstract  love  and  the  spirit  of 
sacrifice  for  a  loved  one,  but  it  does  not  fan  the  flames  of  physical 
passion  as  does  the  music  which  accompanies  the  one-step  and  the 
fox  trot.  These  qualities  make  it  permanent  and  enduring,  while  the 
'jazz'  tunes  are  reliant  upon  qualities  that  make  them  valueless  to- 
morrow. Their  fleeting  nature  is  a  proof  of  their  deficiency  in 
meritorious  characteristics. 

"A  great  German  painter,  Alois  Kolb,  with  the  Teutonic  artist's 
love  of  the  gross  and  grotesque,  once  painted  a  picture  of  profane 
music  which  modern  moralists  insist  describes  the  spirit  of  the 
modern  dance  as  it  was  before  the  sterner  music  began  to  crowd  it 
out.  He  pictured  Satan  playing  a  violin  from  the  pedestal  from 
which  the  Sphinx,  symbol  of  cruelty  and  lust,  looked  down  upon  a 
maudlin  world. 

"Human  beings  made  mad  by  the  debased  music  of  Satan  danced 
below  in  an  orgy  of  indecency.  At  the  bottom  of  the  picture  Kolb 
placed  the  snake-haired  head  of  Medusa,  the  mythical  goddess  one 
sight  of  whom  would  turn  a  human  being  to  stone.  Medusa  stood 
for  vice  in  the  mind  of  the  primitive  man;  the  writhing  reptiles  that 
were  her  hair  symbolized  the  ghastliness  and  repulsion  of  crime,  and 
the  ruination  of  the  man  who  looked  upon  her  personified  the  dead- 
ening effect  which  familiarity  with  wickedness  produces  in  the  human 
being." 

Music  has  sometimes  been  classified  according  to  the  society  it  keeps 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  ACS  67 

Even  in  ancient  times  this  classification  prevailed.  Its  appeal  is  directly  to 
the  feelings,  and  it  is  perhaps  true  to  say  that  it  touches  the  passions  more 
strongly  than  even  the  spoken  or  written  word.  When  such  music  is  applied 
to  the  dance,  it  brings  to  its  aid  the  baser  imaginations  which  give  thoughts 
and  feelings  of  the  most  degenerate  character.  It  is  a  powerful  truth,  and 
>et  we  have  scarcely  begun  to  sense  it,  that  there  is  an  evil  music  to  be 
shunned,  just  as  there  is  an  evil  companionship. 

Qualities. — The  evils  of  debased  music  are  more  insidious  because  of 
the  almost  universal  indifference  if  not  ignorance  about  the  kinds  of  music. 
Yet  when  we  stop  to  think,  there  are  as  many  kinds  of  music  as  there  are 
peculiar  qualities  and  characteristics  in  individuals:  we  have  music  that 
encourages  frivolity.  I  once  heard  a  musician  say  that  "if  I  played  long 
such  music  I  should  become  down-right  lazy."  Then  there  must  be  music 
that  induces  idleness,  just  as  there  is  music  that  creates  excessive  hilarity 
and  light  mindedness.  If  we  were  as  choice  about  the  music  which  we 
permit  in  our  homes  as  we  are  about  the  character  of  the  language  used, 
we  should  eliminate  much  of  it  that  is  positively  evil.  Music  is  a  power 
or  a  gift  to  man  that  was  intended  to  delight,  to  exalt,  to  refine,  and  to 
encourage.  It  is  a  part  of  the  noblest  traits  of  human  life.  But  like  many 
other  exalted  states  of  being,  it  has  found  degeneracy  with  other  degenerate 
conditions  of  life.  It  is  more  dangerous  because  of  its  unsuspected  and  not 
easily  detected  evil  influences. 

Latter-day  Saints"  Point  of  View. — "If  thou  art  merry,  praise  the  Lord 
with  singing,  with  music,  with  dancing,  and  with  a  prayer  of  praise  and 
thanksgiving"  (Doc.  and  Cov.  136:28). 

This  is  part  of  a  revelation  given  to  Brigham  Young  in  1847. 

Music  and  dancing  associated  with  praise  and  prayer,  make  them 
acceptable  to  God. 


XXVII— Dancing 

Example  of  Russia. — Of  all  the  nations  of  Europe,  Russia  has  been  most 
given  to  social  and  religious  vagaries.  Political  activities  were  forbidden 
and  impiovements  had  little  encouragement.  The  great  masses  of  the  peo- 
ple are  "mujiks"  or  peasants.  They  have  been  in  intellectual  darkness  for 
centuries,  and  therefore  a  prey  to  all  kinds  of  delusions.  Class  distinction 
has  been  persistent  and  most  oppressive  to  the  people  at  large.  The  dis- 
tinction was  really  based  upon  work.  There  were  those  who  worked,  and 
those  who  did  not.  Labor  was  a  badge  of  inferiority.  The  rich  aspired  to 
social  distinction  and  the  excessive  pleasures  which  idle  lives  beget.  Petro- 
grad  was  notorious  as  a  den  of  vice,  and  the  ball-room  was  the  center  of 
social  ambitions.  The  ballet  was  never  so  popular  in  Paris  as  it  was  in  the 
Russian  capital.  It  was  full  of  scandal  and  the  source  of  sex  corruption. 

When  the  revolution  of  1905  broke  down,  writers  were  under  as  severe 
a  censorship  as  in  the  old  regime.  They  turned  their  attention  to  fiction, 
as  lascivious  as  the  unbridled  social  life  and  the  ball  room  could  make  it. 
The  dance  was  often  the  center  of  the  so-called  Russian  realism.  It  af- 
forded an  opportunity  to  play  upon  thoughts  and  feelings  of  those  whose 
daily  lives  were  a  round  of  pleasure  and  dissipation.  The  social  novel  with 
its  disgusting  realism  of  life  in  Petrograd  was  remunerative  and  popular. 

The  Russian  ballet  dancers  were  famous  the  world  over.  Their  move- 
ments catered  to  the  more  sordid  instincts  of  men  and  women.  At  one  time 
their  vulgarities  were  too  much  for  most  of  the  European  capitals,  who 
frowned  upon  them.  In  time  they  were  imitated,  and  gained  more  and  more 
a  world-wide  reception.  The  degeneracy  of  the  ball-room  was  nowhere 
more  striking  than  in  the  domain  of  the  czar.  The  censorship  did  not  per- 
mit any  more  of  its  weird  life  to  reach  the  outside  world  than  could  not 
be  prevented.  I  quote  from  the  New  York  Sun  of  Sept.  9,  1917,  dated  Petro- 
grad, Aug.  5  (by  mail) : 


68  PROBLEMS  OP  THE  AGE 

"Ballet  girls  are  being  permitted  to  enter  the  learned  profes- 
sions. A  special  commission  to  prepare  reforms  in  the  former  im- 
perial, now  state,  theatres,  has  pronounced  for  the  abolition  of  the 
system  under  which  the  ballet  pupil  could  never  be  anything  but  a 
ballet  dancer. 

"At  the  age  of  nine  years  many  girls  entered  the  ballet  school 
of  the  Marlinsky  Theater  and  spent  their  childhood  learning  to  dance, 
receiving  scarcely  any  general  education,  and  were  ordered  to  go  on 
the  ballet  stage.  If  they  refused,  they  were  excluded  from  all  except 
the  lowest  occupations.  They  were  further  prevented  from  leaving  the 
country  without  special  permit.  The  demand  was  so  great  that  such  a 
barbarous  system  had  to  be  inaugurated  to  keep  up  the  supply." 

Corruptions  of  the  Dance. — The  revolution  has  broken  down  Russian 
exclusiveness  and  revealed  to  the  world  what  before  was  never  half  sus- 
pected. Interest  in  the  life  and  conditions  of  that  country  has  rebounded 
in  the  desire  to  know  more  about  the  country  and  its  people.  The  papers 
are  full  of  revelations  of  its  inner  life.  Psychologists  and  sociologists  have 
rushed  to  an  explanation  of  causes  and  effects.  They  are  enlightening  the 
world  about  the  hidden  things  in  the  social  and  religious  practices  of  its  peo- 
ple. In  the  mysteries  of  Russian  degradation  they  have  given  prominence 
to  the  dance.  As  an  institution,  it  is  as  old  as  the  world,  and  in  ancient 
and  medieval  times  was  closely  associated  with  religion — religion  of  the 
kind  which  the  Hebrews  were  forbidden  to  practice. 

Here  is  what  John  D.  Quackenbos,  professor  of  psychology  in  Colum- 
bia University,  has  to  say  in  one  of  the  New  York  dailies: 

"There  is  nothing  new  about  making  a  religious  rite  out  of  a  las- 
civious dance.  It  is  palpably  in  accord  with  the  bias  of  wanton  hu- 
man nature  to  give  to  the  poetry  of  motion  an  unchaste  rhythm  and 
to  legitimize  such  action  with  the  sanction  of  the  gods.  The  records 
of  the  ancient  world  teem  with  revolting  narrations  of  dances  in  honor 
of  licentious  love  gods,  cunningly  calculated  to  excite  the  grosser  pas- 
sions, and  commit  the  riotous  zealots  to  ineffably  unbridled  baccha- 
nalia.  In  such  appeals  to  the  sexual  side  of  their  nature  men  and 
women  were  made  to  believe  by  interested  priests  that  they  were  do- 
ing the  will  of  heaven. 

"In  course  of  time  the  lecherous  dance  lost  its  devotional  charac- 
ter. Loath  to  die  its  natural  death,  it  revived  in  the  epidemics  known 
as  the  dancing  manias  that  swept  over  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages  in 
periodic  outbreaks  of  religious  delusion.  Thereafter  the  sensual  dance 
lost  its  devotional  kinship,  and  found  cloister  in  the  bawdy-houses 
and  circles  of  ill-fame,  whence,  to  the  odium  of  Christian  communi- 
ties, it  has  been  dragged  of  late  years,  to  pollute  society  at  large  with 
its  lewd  mazes  and  disgusting  insinuations.  The  dancing  mania  of 
the  twentieth  century,  none  the  less  dangerous  because  dissociated 
from  dogma,  is  the  only  religion  of  a  host  of  addicts  in  this  country." 

The  mania  of  the  dance  has  usually  been  a  symptom  of  social  decay,  and 
has  represented  society  at  its  worst.  It  has  foretold  the  day  of  calamity  in 
more  than  one  nation  of  the  earth.  Whether  the  dance  represents  the  wor- 
ship of  some  lascivious  god  idol,  or  is  an  object  of  devotion  in  itself,  its 
devotees  suffer  a  moral  loss  to  themselves,  and  bring  numberless  thousands 
to  the  shrine  at  which  they  worship. 

Not  an  Evil  in  Itself. — Has  the  dance  no  proper  place  in  social  life? 
Or  is  its  abuse  responsible  for  the  sins  which  grow  out  of  it?  David  danced 
about  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  while  on  its  way  to  Jerusalem,  to  the  disgust 
of  his  wife  it  must  be  said.  It  is  one  of  the  most  universal  of  all  forms  of 
pleasure.  It  combines  intimate  companionship  with  the  rythm  of  movement 
and  joyous  sounds  of  music.  David  danced  in  a  spirit  jof  divine  joy.  The 
object  of  his  dance  was  the  expression  he  felt  for  a  God-given  achievement. 
Undoubtedly  such  pleasure  has  its  place  in  the  mirth  of  social  life. 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  69 

Its  Control. — Its  dangers,  however,  have  been  fully  recognized  by  the 
Latter-day  Saints,  who  sought  to  control  it  in  such  a  manner  as  to  free  it 
from  the  excessive  pleasures  and  temptations  that  might  grow  out  of  it. 
Dances  were  opened  by  prayer,  and  the  old  and  young  mingled  freely  to- 
gether. Any  movements  or  attitudes  indecorous  were  frowned  upon,  and  a 
spirit  of  gentility  was  cultivated  as  far  as  possible.  We  need  not  wonder 
that  the  Saints  have  felt  with  some  alarm  the  influence  of  its  mania  which 
is  now  sweeping  over  the  world.  It  is  one  of  the  most  convincing  indict* 
meiits  against  the  stability  of  society  in  this  age.  In  places  it  amounts  al- 
most to  a  disease.  The  youth  of  the  world  today  is  under  a  heavy  tribute 
to  it.  It  is  literally  enslaving  millions.  It  is  perhaps  the  best  expression 
of  the  irreligious  condition  of  the  world.  Its  addicts  have  lost  respect  for 
the  Sabbath,  have  lost  the  moral  sense  of  duty,  have  surrendered  themselves 
to  a  life  of  mirth,  and  now  worship  at  the  shrine  of  pleasure.  It  is  really 
giving  serious  cause  for  alarm.  It  dictates  to  fashion,  ignores  health,  and 
fosters  indecencies.  Its  abolition  has  never  been  accomplished,  but  today 
it  passes  all  control. 

The  ball  room  is  responsible  for  the  waste  of  untold  millions;  it  teaches 
frivolity  and  delights  in  extravagance;  it  is  classifying  society  by  its  exclu- 
sion of  parents  and  the  older  members  of  the  community;  it  snatches  from 
home  life  and  its  sanctity  those  who  need* most  its  protection,  and  it  oblit- 
erates God  in  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  its  devotees. 

The  dancing  craze  is  more  than  a  symptom;  it  is  a  disease.  In  the  New 
York  Sun,  Sept.  9,  1917,  Jane  Dixon  writes: 

"The  toddle,  friends,  is  New  York's  latest  dance  delirium.  As  yet 
the  delirium  has  not  become  epidemic.  The  germ  of  the  toddle  first 
manifested  itself  in  the  brain  of  one  G.  H.  B.,  official  delineator  of 
the  dance  for  the  Isle  of  Manhattan.  From  the  dome  of  this  terpsi- 
chorean  demon  the  toddle  germ  rapidly  spread  to  his  feet,  where  it 
manifested  itself  in  all  its  violence,  breaking  forth  in  a  movement  half 
way  between  a  fat  suburban  gentleman  running  to  catch  the  5:55  and 
a  lazy  'possum  that  has  just  dined  heavily  on  persimmons.  Do  not 
think  the  toddle  is  Mr.  W.'s  only  output.  His  is  by  no  means  a  one- 
track  mind.  He  has  invented  a  pretty  little  idea  he  calls,  'Hello, 
pals.'  Not  a  song,  mind  you;  a  dance.  Hear  him:  *  "Hello,  pals"  is 
the  successor  of  our  "Paul  Jones."  It  is  a  plain,  unvarnished  one- 
step.  But  there  is  a  plus  sign  after  the  one-step.  Partners  do  the  one- 
step  until  a  signal  from  the  music  is  given,  when  they  shake  hands 
and  recite  a  little  poem.  It  goes: 

"*  "Hello,  pals,  I'm  glad  to  meet  you; 
Hello,  pals,  I'm  glad  to  greet  you." ' 

Its  Sacrifice  to  Mammon. — How  inspiring!  From  different  parts  of  the 
world  come  candidates  for  training  to  this  famous  dancing  master,  soon  to 
be  a  millionaire.  The  glare  of  his  wealth  attracts  the  ambition  of  the  lesser 
lights.  They,  too,  see  the  glitter  of  gold,  and  there  are  millions  today  in 
the  dancing  business.  The  dimension  of  this  industrial  life  has  grown  into 
enormous  proportions.  Dancing  is  the  new  spirit  of  the  age.  Our  little  ones 
take  to  it  with  fresh  delight.  Parents  who  see  these  rare  gifts  pour  their 
gold  into  the  pocket  of  the  dancing  artist  and  modistes  in  unstinted  meas- 
ure. We  may  object,  but  we  hesitate.  Parents  are  old-fashioned.  Thev 
want  to  do  what  is  for  the  best.  To  deny  children  what  they  seriously  want 
is  a  social  offense.  If  a  decision  is  delayed,  the  dancing  master,  is  brought  to 
the  house.  His  persuasion  is  convincing.  Maybe  we  are  behind  the  times. 
Social  requirements  are  the  meat  and  drink  of  the  age.  We  dare  not  ostra- 
cise our  children.  If  we  still  hesitate,  it  is  because  we  do  not  love  these 
monsters  of  cruelty!  Who  dares  face  the  accusation?  The  pace  is  set  and 
we  are  going  in  full  speed. 

An  Element  of  National  Destruction.— The  dance  has  the  respectability 
of  being  the  most  ancient  of  customs.  It  was  one  of  the  strongest  competi- 
tors in  the  race  for  national  ruin  of  the  ancient  empires  of  Mesopotamia, 


70  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

The  literature  of  those  ancient  times  is  full  of  nauseating  details  of  dance 
debauchery.  Those  nations  all  went  down  when  they  had  most  to  boast  of; 
when  in  the  age  of  their  greatest  glory.  "Eat,  drink,  and  be  merry"  is  the 
siren  of  destruction.  The  current  of  modern  life  is  tempestuous.  Who  can 
withstand  it?  Is  the  picture  overdrawn?  Read  what  Max  Muller,  the  great- 
est of  Oriental  scholars  and  translators,  says:  He  declares  that  had  he  not 
made  in  his  translations  copious  expurgations,  he  would  have  been  prose- 
cuted for  circulating  obscene  literature. 

Duty  of  the  Church. — Do  the  ball  room  and  the  Church  have  anything 
in  common?  One  represents  the  joyous  side  of  life,  the  other  religious. 
The  Church  must  have  its  guide  and  its  guardian.  The  ball  room  is  with- 
out either  unless,  as  among  the  Latter-day  Saints,  it  comes  within  the  regu- 
lation of  Church  organizations.  It  is  not  easy  outside  of  these  organiza- 
tions to  control  the  excessive  tempting  pleasures  of  the  dance. 

From  the  Ball  Room  to  Hell  is  the  title  of  a  book  by  one  who  pro- 
fessed to  know  the  dangers  of  the  dance.  The  book  created  rome  com- 
ment at  the  time  it  was  published.  It  has  passed  out  of  memory.  The  pas- 
sions of  pleasure  rarely  yield  to  reason.  Are  we  yielding  to  what  we  know 
to  be  a  dangerous  social  condition?  It  is  hard  to  withstand  a  constant  pres- 
sure. We  grow  tired  and  break,  down  very  often.  Society  is  honeycombed 
to  the  center  by  all  kinds  of  excesses,  extravagances,  delusions,  impropri- 
eties, vices,  and  shames.  "A  calamity  howler"  is  no  answer  to  the  signal  of 
social  dangers.  The  war  is  laying  bare  many  of  the  world's  shames  which 
before  had  been  covered  by  artistic  drapery. 

Dancing  is  now  a  profession.  Its  devotees  must  be  up-to-date.  There 
is  money  in  every  newly  invented  dance.  Professionals  have  sprung  up  by 
the  thousands.  New  steps  are  the  rage.  Formerlv  this  form  of  pleasure  was 
conducted  at  night.  Now  it  goes  on  day  and  night.  Schools  of  instruction 
are  multiplying  rapidly.  It  was  once  one  of  the  cheapest  of  all  pleasures; 
now  it  is  most  expensive.  Once  it  was  a  pastime  for  the  entire  community; 
now  children  would  be  ashamed  to  see  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  parents 
and  elders  to  dance.  It  is  creating  a  class  distinction,  always  a  source  of 
danger  to  social  life.  Shall  the  mania  be  suppressed?  Can  it  be  cured? 
The  disease  is  in  the  mind.  It  is  vastly  more  difficult  to  cure  mental  dis- 
eases than  physical  ones.  The  coming  generation  will  be  inheritors  of  the 
dread  disease.  It  is  said  that  nothing  today  contributes  more  to  race  suicide 
than  the  dance.  The  habits  of  youth  are  not  easily  broken  off  by  married 
life.  Children  are  in  the  way,  they  are  an  obstacle  which  must  be  prevented. 
Conversations  in  the  home  and  in  up-to-date  society  too  often  hinge  upon  the 
discussions  of  the  ball  room.  Criticisms  and  snobbery  are  rife.  Ridicule 
is  encouraged.  The  serious  side  of  life  is  barred. 

Revelations. — "Say  nothing  but  repentance  unto  this  generation.  Keep 
my  commandments,  and  assist  to  bring  forth  my  work,  according  to  my 
commandments,  and  you  shall  be  blessed"  (Doc.  and  Cov.  11:8). 

"Do  you  believe  in  a  personal  devil?"  That  is  often  a  question  put  by 
even  many  of  our  own  people.  Where  does  the  devilish  spirit  of  an  aban- 
doned age  come  from?  It  is  a  disease  of  the  mind,  we  are  told.  Just  a  dis- 
ease that  may  be  cured  by  some  scientific  treatment,  we  are  told.  It  is  not 
popular  to  believe  in  a  devil.  What  has  God  said  about  the  devil? 

"And  it  must  needs  be  that  the  devil  tempt  the  children  of  men,  or  they 
could  not  be  agents  unto  themselves,  for  if  they  never  should  have  bitter 
they  could  not  know  the  sweet"  (Doc.  and  Cov.  29:39.  Read  more  of 
same  section). 


XXVIII— The  Theater 

License  of  the  Stage. — The  theater  is  both  a  symptom  and  a  cause.  It 
reevals  social  influences  and  the  trend  of  modern  life  in  a  manner  that  is 
not  depicted  and  would  not  be  tolerated  elsewhere.  Characters  upon  the 
stage  are  permitted  to  say  things  and  do  things  that  society  would  not  tol- 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  71 

erate  in  any  other  place.  The  very  fact  that  the  revelations  of  immoral  con- 
duct are  permitted  on  the  stage  accounts,  in  large  part,  for  the  vast  num- 
bers of  its  devotees.  The  stage  is  therefore  symbolic — a  symbolism  of  in- 
dulgence, freedom  from'  restraint,  that  are  rapidly  increasing,  if  we  are  com- 
pelled to  believe  as  authors  assert,  that  the  stage  is  taking  on  license  beyond 
all  belief.  It  not  only  suggests  and  encourages  immorality  by  the  license 
it  takes,  but  it  is  often  the  covert  foe  to  religion  and  social  moderation.  It 
indulges  in  ridicule  which  is  dangerous  to  sobriety  by  its  cunning  attacks 
on  many  of  our  soundest  and  sanest  social  institutions.  It  is  particularly 
severe  upon  marriage;  it  destroys  courtship,  and  often  ridicules  religion. 
Society  has  become  indifferent  to  the  stage,  whose  excesses  are  explained 
away  if  taken  any  notice  of,  by  the  statement  that  "we  must  take  no  notice 
of  it,"  because  it  is  the  stage.  Its  devotees  are  made  up  of  all  classes — the 
rich  and  the  poor,  the  high  and  the  low,  churchmen  and  laymen;  and  from 
all  there  comes  the  same  hilarious  laughter  at  indecent  ridicule  and  immoral 
suggestion. 

The  stage  is  also  a  cause:  it  excites  feelings  that  would  better  remain 
dormant.  It  offers  plausible  excuses  for  the  most  tragic  failures  of  life, 
and  has  its  saving  clauses  in  a  philosophy  that  is  as  fatal  to  the  welfare  of 
society  as  it  is  to  the  promotion  of  happiness.  It  has  become  a  part  of  our 
present-day  world  life.  It  is  reflected  more  in  our  social  intercourse  than  is 
the  Church;  and  as  an  educator  of  public  sentiment,  it  has  perhaps  no  su- 
perior. 

Present  Conditions. — Is  the  war  making  us  serious-minded?  Does  the 
presence  of  eternity  on  the  battlefield  incline  men  to  a  spirit  of  sacredness 
and  devotion?  War  is  a  human  institution,  and  carries  men  along  in  the 
trend  of  their  past  experiences.  It  emphasizes  human  life  wherever  it 
touches  it:  by  it  the  religious  may  be  made  more  religious,  the  indifferent 
more  indifferent,  the  scoffer  more  scornful.  The  war  in  France  had  not  been 
long  under  way  until  amusements,  chiefly  the  recreation  of  the  theater,  was 
considered  necessary  for  the  encouragement  and  good  cheer  of  the  soldiers. 
The  theater  was  therefore  transferred  from  the  large  cities  to  the  front.  I 
copy  from  the  New  York  Sun  of  October  28,  1917: 

"The  critics  point  out  that  while  in  the  beginning  things  were  dif- 
ferent, in  the  last  few  months  salaciousness  has  increased  tremend- 
ously, in  these  theatrical  productions.  This  is  not  surprising.  In 
Paris,  when  the  theaters  were  first  reopened  after  the  beginning  of  the 
war,  the  plays  were  all  on  a  high  plane.  It  seemed  as  if  only  the 
classic  repertory  was  to  be  played  and  the  preference  was  for  Cor- 
neille,  and  in  Corneille's  own  theater  they  gave  "Horace,"  where 
patriotic  sentiment  is  so  admirably  expressed. 

"But  when  the  war  went  on  longer  than  the  managers  dreamed  it 
would — longer  than  they  wanted  to  prolong  this  truce  of  heroism  and 
chastity,  to  which  they  were  willing  to  devote  months,  even  a  whole 
season — their  patience  came  to  an  end. 

"They  began  to  revert  to  plays  of  the  ante-war  type.  In  a  brief 
time  Paris  had  the  same  theater  as  existed  before  the  war;  the  same 
theater  where  the  revues  and  many  of  the  plays  are  filled  with  in- 
uendo  and  vulgarity.  It  is  likely  that  the  theater  at  the  front  has  in 
some  wise  followed  the  example  of  the  Paris  stage. 

"M.  Beaunier,  commenting  on  these  conditions,  writes: 

*"I  know  the  answer  many  people  will  make  to  this:  that  art 
beautifies  everything  it  touches.  But  this  is  not  true  in  anv  respect, 
and  often  art  is  spoiled  by  what  it  touches.  A  cleverer  argument 
is:  "It  amuses  them.  Their  life  is  not  happy  in  the  trenches  and  in 
the  camps.  Are  you  going  to  quibble  about  their  pleasure?"  But  it 
doesn't  amuse  them — if  I  can  believe  my  correspondents.  You  mis- 
judge them  when  you  attribute  so  little  delicacy  to  them.  *  *  * 

"  'This  confusing  of  pornography  and  gaiety  is  one  of  the  most 
foolish  errors  of  our  day.  It  has  done  much  to  hurt  the  good  reputa- 
tion of  France.  Besides  the  strangers  who  came  to  Paris  sought  for 


72  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

it  with  an  unhealthy  curiosity  and  then  despised  us  when  they  returned 
home.  This  hypocrisy  is  well  known.  Real  gayety  is  never  nasty;  it 
is  a  sign  of  health;  while  pornography  is  a  disease  of  the  mind. 

14  'We  thought  that  the  war  had  put  an  end  to  all  these  turpitudes. 
We  expected  a  change  in  the  public  mind,  and  in  its  habits,  in  its 
frivolities — a  tonifying  of  its  imagination.  There  is  still  hope." 

Fallacy  of  Art. — The  trouble  with  the  theater,  as  with  all  other  sorts 
of  amusements,  is  that  it  is  almost  wholly  dissociated  from  religious  life. 
When  Brigham  Young  built  the  great  theater  in  Salt  Lake  City  (it  was 
great  indeed  at  the  time  it  was  constructed)  he  intended  that  it  should  be 
under  the  censorship  of  the  Church.  Dances  and  other  forms  of  amuse- 
ment were  provided  under  a  directorship  intended  to  shut  out  the  evils 
and  abuses  to  which  all  kinds  of  amusements  are  so  easily  subjected.  Today 
our  Church  organizations  devote  much  of  their  working  programs  to  the 
betterment  of  our  social  life  through  safe  and  sane  amusements.  In  the 
larger  cities,  where  a  cosmopolitan  spirit  prevails,  it  ia  more  difficult  to 
blend  the  pleasures  and  religious  influences  of  life.  To  separate  them  is  to 
increase  the  dangers  of  one  at  the  expense  of  the  other. 

We  are  now  met  by  the  flagrant  demand  that  things  must  be  accepted  and 
approved,  whatever  immorality  they  may  suggest,  because  they  represent 
art,  as  though  art  stood  apart  from  human  feelings,  suggestions,  inclinations, 
and  temptations.  It  is  contended  that  the  separation  of  real  art,  nude  and 
other  immoral  art,  from  the  moral,  wholesome  influences  of  life,  is  simple 
and  easy  to  those  who  are  strong-minded  and  have  high  powers  of  discrim- 
ination; that  it  is  only  the  weak  and  the  unworthy  that  debase  real  true 
art  by  any  thought  of  vulgarity.  Such  advocates  of  art,  like  the  advocates 
of  platonic  love,  are  guilty  of  shams  and  false  pretense:  there  is  no  direct 
and  precise  cleavage  in  the  thought,  feelings,  emotions,  and  temptations  of 
human  life.  They  are  so  interwoven  that  a  violence  to  any  one  of  them 
touches  all  of  them. 

Excesses. — "Yea,  all  things  which  come  of  the  earth,  in  the  season 
thereof,  are  made  for  the  benefit  and  the  use  of  man,  both  to  please  the 
eye  and  gladden  the  heart;  yea,  for  food  and  for  raiment,  for  taste  and  for 
smell,  to  strengthen  the  body  and  to  enliven  the  soul. 

"And  it  pleaseth  God  that  he  hath  given  these  things  unto  man;  for 
unto  this  end  they  were  made  to  be  used  with  judgment,  not  to  excess, 
neither  by  extortion." 

Revelation  to  Joseph  Smith,  1831,  Doc.  and  Cov.  59:18-20. 


XXIX— Heredity 

Its  Spiritual  Origin. — Much  time  has  been  devoted  in  various  social 
organizations  throughout  the  Church  to  the  discussion  of  heredity.  It  has 
been  a  subject  of  debate  and  scientific  research  for  centuries.  Around  it  all 
sorts  of  agreements  and  disagreements  have  been  hurled,  and  there  is  today 
no  definite  science  of  heredity. 

The  greatest  announcement  on  this  subject  is  to  be  found  in  the  Book 
of  Genesis,  where  it  deals  with  the  confusion  of  tongues  at  the  Tower  of 
Babel.  The  language  of  the  people  was  confounded  and  they  were  scattered 
abroad  upon  the  earth.  From  that  time  on  thev  represented  groups  of 
humanity,  and  in  time  races  were  formed  out  of  these  groups.  This  is  the 
greatest  law,  and  perhaps  the  only  commonly  recognized  law  of  heredity 
in  the  world  of  thought  today.  Race  heredity  is  well  known;  individual 
heredity  has  never  been  agreed  upon.  While  men  inherit  certain  great 
characteristics  of  their  race,  the  same  cannot  be  said  of  their  inheritances 
individually. 

We  believe  in  a  spiritual  existence  which  we  enjoyed  before  the  creation 
of  this  earth,  and  that  when  bodies  are  given  to  us  they  become  simply  the 
tabernacles  of  a  prior  living  spirit,  with  certain  essential  qualities  of 
thought,  feeling,  and  possibilities.  With  our  primeval  existence  as  a  start- 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  73 

ing  point,  our  views  of  heredity  must  necessarily  be  very  different  from 
those  who  look  upon  this  world  as  the  beginning  of  life.  All  those  who 
consider  the  body  and  spirit  as  contemporaneous,  naturally  trace  the  various 
qualities  and  characteristics  of  life  to  an  earthly  parental  origin,  with  the 
result  that  thinkers  and  writers  are  in  hopeless  confusion  about  the  law  of 
heredity. 

We  believe  that  the  negroes  constitute  a  group  of  inherited  qualities, 
not  merely  qualities  of  their  earthly  parents,  but  qualities  which  existed 
in  them  before  the  earth  was  created.  And  so  with  the  different  races, 
which  express  distinct  race  peculiarities. 

The  confusion  of  tongues,  therefore,  at  the  Tower  of  Babel  was  more 
than  the  disruption  of  a  national  life  and  the  defeat  of  an  ambition:  it  was 
the  beginning  of  race  distinction  and  race  distribution  upon  the  face  of  the 
earth, — a  distribution  that  enabled  each  race  to  receive  those  spirits  that 
were  characteristic  of  that  particular  group.  It  is  equally  true  that  we  as 
individuals  represent  qualities  that  have  come  to  us  through  our  primeval 
existence.  The  question,  however,  of  these  individual  inheritances  is  not 
so  evident  as  it  is  in  the  case  of  general  race  characteristics.  From  the 
same  parents  a  child  is  often  born  with  those  qualities  of  life  which  make 
for  higher  and  better  manhood  or  womanhood,  and  later  a  child  that  has 
characteristics  of  an  opposite  tendency.  That  difference  is  not  explained 
by  merely  temperamental  changes  in  the  parents  or  changes  in  environment 
as  has  been  abundantly  proved  in  a  wide  range  of  experiments  and  observa- 
tions. 

Objections. — Any  effort,  therefore,  to  fix  a  rule  of  inheritance  has  been 
abortive.  If  we  had  a  primeval  existence,  our  qualities  of  being  must 
depend  to  a  large  extent  upon  that  existence,  and  the  law  of  justice  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  we  were  born  into  life  with  certain  primeval  inherit- 
ances which  we  were  entitled  to  enjoy  in  a  mortal  state.  Let  us  take  a 
case  for  the  advocates  of  a  strict  law  of  heredity:  a  good  man  marries  a 
good  wife;  they  have  good  children,  and  their  children's  children  are  good; 
and  by  superior  efforts  and  improved  environments  they  continue,  as  gen- 
erations go  on,. to  grow  into  perfect  conditions.  These  people,  having  good 
children  who  create  good  environments,  escape  the  burdens,  cares,  anxieties 
and  sorrows  of  those  who  have  born  to  them  children  who  become  way- 
ward. The  good,  who  are  able  to  carry  a  great  burden,  teach  and  practice 
in  the  highest  degree  the  law  of  correct  living,  and  have  little  responsibility 
as  compared  with  those  who  are  less  qualified  to  assume  the  heavier  bur- 
dens of  life.  We  should  thus  be  compelled  to  reverse  the  teachings  of 
Christ,  "Where  much  is  given,  much  is  expected,"  and  we  should  fly  in 
the  face  of  all  social  progress. 

Illustrations. — The  doctrine  of  our  primeval  existence  is  fundamentally 
one  of  religious  belief.  We  believe  'that  we  were  first  created  spiritually, 
that  we  were  literally,  in  our  spiritual  creation,  the  "sons  and  daughters  of 
God,"— that  among  those  sons  and  daughters  were  Jesus  Christ  and  Lucifer, 
who  were  the  very  antipodes  of  each  other.  How  would  a  believer  in  the 
law  of  heredity  explain  from  the  standpoint  of  a  pre-spiritual  existence,  the 
differences  between  Christ  and  Satan?  An  eminent  writer,  Samuel  George 
Smith,  in  his  book  on  Social  Pathology,  says: 

"Children  born  of  the  same  parents,  reared  under  precisely  the 
same  circumstances,  differ  very  widely  in  character  and  conduct,  so 
that  heredity  and  environment  combined  seem  unequal  to  the  task 
of  a  complete  explanation  of  the  history  of  the  individual.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  heredity  and  environment  is  each  influential  in  forming 
the  individual,  but  in  heredity  there  is  as  much  room  for  variation  as 
there  are  numbers  in  the  group  considered,  and  in  environment  there 
are  such  changing  elements  that  no  two  individuals  ever  have  pre- 
cisely the  same  influences.  There  is  a  variant  of  organization  which 
makes  each  individual  of  the  human  race  absolutely  unique,  and 
without  going  into  the  metaphysics  of  personal  choice  or  desire,  there 


74  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

is  an  unmeasured  and  probably  unmeasureable,  variant  in  the  attitude 
of  every  individual  toward  his  opportunity.  The  problems  are  not 
easy  of  solution." 

There  is  much  force  in  the  statement  that  "There  is  a  variant  of  organi- 
zation which  makes  each  individual  of  the  human  race  absolutely  unique." 
Such  a  statement  goes  far  to  support  the  doctrine  we  teach  of  our  primeval 
existence.  The  attempted  rule  of  heredity  is  baffling  even  to  itself.  Dr. 
Smith  says: 

"Every  living  individual  who  counts  back  ten  generations  may 
have  over  a  thousand  grandparents.  In  the  direct  line  of  descent  all 
of  them  must  be  considered  in  the  question  of  his  inheritance,  but  the 
thousand  grandparents  of  a  few  generations  back  are  completely  lost 
in  the  social  group,  and  it  is  quite  evident,  apart  from  any  special 
theories,  that  whatever  the  inheritance  of  an  individual  may  be,  it  is 
pretty  difficult  to  give  it  a  scientific  definition." 

Some  of  the  props  upon  which  heredity  is  founded  are  knocked  away 
by  the  cold  facts  of  history.  One  of  the  chief  of  these  is  the  so-called  "law 
of  environment."  The  Indians  of  the  American  continent  have  had  perhaps 
the  best  environment  in  the  world.  Archaelogy  and  the  Book  of  Mormon 
both  confirm  the  fact  that  they  have  retrograded  from  a  higher  to  a  lower 
stage  of  civilization.  Environments  did  not  create  in  them  any  progressive 
advance  to  a  civilized  state. 

Mendelism. — Much  discussion  about  heredity  is  based  upon  certain  dis- 
coveries in  the  vegetable  world, — the  so-called  laws  of  Mendel.  Here,  too, 
from  our  point  of  view,  we  are  compelled  to  make  a  broad  distinction. 
Even  scientific  writers  are  abandoning  the  argument  that  the  same  rules 
apply  to  life  in  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms  as  apply  to  the  life  of 
man.  It  is  true  that  all  God  created,  if  we  take  the  account  given  in  Gen- 
esis, was  created  first  spiritually.  Between  that  spiritual  creation  and  our 
own,  however,  there  is  a  wide  difference.  We  are  the  direct  creations  of 
God — his  children;  he  is  our  father,  who  is  in  Heaven.  He  is  nowhere  in 
Scripture  designated  as  the  Father  of  animals  and  plants.  Whatever  may 
have  been  the  source  o.f  their  spiritual  creation,  or  the  ultimate  end  of 
plant  and  animal  life,  there  is  from  the  beginning  a  very  distinct  difference 
between  them  and  the  human  race.  It  is  true  that  there  are  likenesses,  but 
there  are  essential  differences  that  have  never  yet  been  bridged  over.  The 
progress  of  animal  and  human  life  lie  along  essentially  different  courses  of 
progress.  Much  has  been  said  about  Mendel's  experiments  on  peas  and 
on  mice.  He  has  shown  that  in  them  there  is  a  certain  dominance  of 
qualities;  that  one  parent  or  the  other  may  be  transmitted.  Quoting  from 
Smith  again: 

"Professor  Bateson,  one  of  the  leading  exponents  of  the  doctrine 
of  Mendel,  says  that  there  is  little  evidence  of  the  transmission  of 
abnormal  characteristics,  and  he  naively  says  that  'if  in  the  simple 
matter  of  color  our  population  and  their  descendants  followed  rules 
such  as  those  which  prevail  in  the  color  of  the  sweet  pea,  of  the 
mouse,  and  of  the  cat,  the  essential  facts  of  Mendelism  must  long 
ago  have  been  part  of  the  common  property  of  human  knowledge.' 
This  shows  a  dawning  light  upon  the  eyes  of  Professor  Bateson,  re- 
vealing to  him  that  the  complex  human  animal  cannot  be  expounded 
in  biological  terms." 

Family  Groups. — This  law  of  Mendel  has  led  to  the  promulgation  of  a 
new  theory  or  law,  which  is  called  Eugenics.  Certain  families  of  criminals 
and  families  of  superior  abilities  have  been  studied  to  demonstrate  the  cor- 
rectness of  Mendel's  theory.  I  again  quote  from  Dr.  Smith: 

"The   first  is   the   study   of  the   Jukes   by   R.   L.   Dugdale.      The 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  75 

family  in  seventy-five  years  numbered  twelve  thousand  persons.  They 
cost  the  state  a  million  and  a  quarter  of  dollars  in  these  seventy-five 
years.  They  are  all  descended  from  one  dissolute  woman,  Belle  Juke. 
Those  who  have  not  taken  the  trouble  to  read  the  book  or  to  study 
the  problem  regard  this  classical  case  as  a  definite  proof  that  crime, 
pauperism,  and  other  evils  are  clearly  of  an  hereditary  nature.  But 
one  of  the  most  significant  statements  of  Mr.  Dugdale  is,  'The  ten- 
dency of  heredity  is  to  produce  an  environment  which  perpetuates 
that  heredity,'  or,  to  put  it  plainly,  the  trouble  with  this  family  was 
that  every  generation  of  little  Jukes  was  taken  care  of  by  depraved 

Jukes." 

************ 

"Dr.  Lange  of  Denmark  had  given  an  illustration  of  degeneration 
in  families.  He  had  found  that  44  related  families  in  twenty  years 
had  sent  no  less  than  77  patients  to  the  insane  asylum.  In  the  same 
families  358  serious  neurophatic  cases  had  appeared  in  one  form  or 
another  in  a  few  generations,  from  which  he  argued  the  evil  effect 
of  the  first  neurophatic  woman,  the  founder  of  the  breed. 

"Further  investigations  revealed  some  strange  facts  about  these 
families,  for  in  them  there  appeared  besides  the  77  insane  persons, 
an  unusual  proportion  of  gifted  men  and  women.  There  were  two 
cabinet  ministers,  one  foreign  ambassador,  three  bishops,  three  gen- 
erals, nine  university  professors,  and  a  large  number  of  public 
officials,  and  no  less  than  forty-four  poets  and  artists,  most  of  whom 
were  known  throughout  Denmark.  In  twenty-eight  of  these  families 
there  were  seventy-two  individuals  who  secured  very  prominent  posi- 
tions through  special  intellectual  ability." 

Some  of  these  cases  appear  to  support  the  theory,  but  the  exceptions 
are  too  numerous  to  speak  of  the  Mendel  theory  as  a  law. 

Transmitted  Qualities.— Is  the  study  of  heredity  profitable?  Within 
certain  limits — race  qualities — it  has  some  justification.  Scientific  men,  by 
their  writings,  have  thrown  students  of  the  subject  into  interminable  con- 
fusion. It  is  legitimate  enough  to  approach  the  subject  of  heredity  from 
a  standpoint  merely  of  investigation.  There  are  about  its  study  many  curious 
conditions  of  life;  they  invite  wonderment,  even  study, — but  they  are  not 
so  fixed  or  so  agreed  upon  that  we  are  justified  in  speaking  of  certain 
transmitted  conditions  and  tendencies  as  a  law.  At  an  earlier  period  in  our 
investigations  on  heredity,  men  undertook  to  explain  the  moral  and  social 
life  of  nations  by  the  law  of  heredity.  They  considered  the  law  sufficiently 
established  to  make  it  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  individual  phenomena. 
The  view  here  taken  by  Dr.  Smith  is  now  quite  generally  admitted: 

"It  used  to  be  taught  that  a  number  of  diseases  were  transmitted 
from  generation  to  generation.  It  is  now  generally  agreed  that  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  hereditary  disease  in  any  true  sense.  *  *  * 
It  is  now  agreed  that  certain  diseases  may  be  conveyed  to  the  child 
in  its  prenatal  condition,  or  at  the  time  of  birth,  and  that  is  the  only 
fragment  left  of  the  doctrine  of  hereditary  disease.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  tuberculosis  in  the  parents,  because 
of  its  weakening  effect,  results  frequently  in  an  offspring  that  may 
become  feeble-minded  or  insane.  This  is  a  further  illustration  of 
the  general  law  that  the  chief  bequest  to  the  child  of  parenthood  is 
strength  or  weakness. 

"As  disease  is  not  hereditary,  so  physical  mutilations  are  not 
transmitted.  The  Chinese  foot  needs  to  be  compressed  generation 
after  generation." 

It  is  doubtful  whether  all  that  is  known  about  laws  of  heredity  can  have 
any  particular  educational  value,  more  than  that  of  curiosity  which  comes 
from  the  study  of  related  qualities  in  human  life. 

There  are  two  very  distinct  powers  that  come  with  the  birth  of  human 


76  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

life:  they  are  the  powers  of  acquisition  and  the  powers  of  desire.  We  have 
laid  stress  upon  the  importance  of  the  former  to  the  neglect  of  the  latter. 
We  have  been  forced,  through  a  false  system  of  education,  into  the  belief 
and  practice  that  happiness  and  future  welfare  are  to  be  measured  by  our 
acquisitions.  What  would  often  be  more  helpful  to  us  is  the  education  of 
our  necessities, — what  it  is  proper  to  desire  and  what  we  ought  to  avoid. 

Operations  of  the  Spirit  of  God. — Of  those  who  fear  God  the  Lord  in  a 
vision  to  Joseph  Smith  said:  "For  by  my  Spirit  I  will  enlighten  them,  and 
by  my  power  I  will  make  known  unto  them  the  secrets  of  my  will;  yea, 
even  those  things  which  the  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  nor  yet  en- 
tered into  the  heart  of  man"  (Sec.  76:10,  Doc.  and  Cov.). 

The  dangers  of  attempting  to  fix  rules  for  our  guidance  by  the  theory 
of  heredity  lies  in  the  fact  that  as  a  matter  of  philosophy  it  can  give  us 
nothing  tangible  about  the  operations  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  We  may  even 
be  born  of  the  Spirit.  In  the  nature  of  things  much  of  our  speculations 
leave  no  room  for  the  permanent  influences  which  the  Spirit  of  God  has 
on  our  lives. 


XXX— Eugenics 

Experiments. — We  are  just  now  forming  eugenic  clubs  throughout  the 
country  with  the  wise  and  beneficent  purpose  of  elevating  society  and 
establishing  correct  principles  of  parentage.  In  some  places  the  advocacy 
of  eugenics  is  most  enthusiastic  and  it  is  spoken  of  as  the  new  and  coming 
science.  Most  extreme  advantages  are  predicted  for  it  and  by  many  it  is 
regarded  as  a  sort  of  salvation  for  many  afflictions  which  torment  human 
society  at  the  present  time.  It  is  sometimes  known  as  Mendelism  from 
the  fact  that  Mendel  made  certain  experiments  with  sweet  peas,  with  mice, 
and  with  cats.  He  traced  out  certain  laws  of  breeding  which  were  repre- 
sented by  diagrams  and  from  these  discoveries  of  animal  relationships  the 
question  was  propounded  for  human  society  and  at  once  the  question  arose, 
if  the  mating  in  the  vegetable  and  animal  world  may  produce  such  exact 
results,  why  may  it  not  have  the  same  effect  upon  human  beings? 

Men  and  Mice. — It  may  be  easy  in  the  same  breath  to  speak  of  men  and 
mice,  and  the  question  would  be  much  more  simple  perhaps  if  the  laws 
regulating  mice  were  also  applicable  to  men;  but  unfortunately  they  are 
not,  and  whatever  may  be  the  difference  in  the  physical  development  of  the 
two  it  is  certain  that  the  inborn  differences  between  men  and  animals  does 
not  permit  us  to  bring  both  classes  under  the  same  laws  of  regeneration. 
It  should  be  stated  at  the  outset  that  the  fundamental  difference  in  matters 
of  progeny  between  man  and  animal  is  to  be  found  in  the  exercise  of  a 
free  agency,  an  important  human  law.  This  law  does  not  prevail  with 
respect  to  animals  and  plants.  They  are  still  under  a  defined  tutelage  and 
governed  by  laws  that  are  universal,  simple,  direct. 

It  is  said  that  we  may  proceed  to  the  improvement  in  the  breeding  of 
human  beings  as  we  do  in  the  breeding  of  animals.  We  have  developed  in 
the  science  of  animal  industry  superior  breeds  which  through  Government 
control  we  may  register  and  call  pure  breeds.  We  have  our  pure  bred 
horses,  hogs,  sheep,  chickens.  Shall  we  have  a  pure  bred  man?  The  trouble 
is  we  are  not  permitted  to  exercise  any  control  over  man  in  the  matter  of 
mating.  True,  in  certain  governments  of  Europe  there  is  a  law  of  Royalty 
which  compels  those  of  royal  blood  to  marry  within  certain  families.  Of 
that,  however,  later. 

The  free  agency  of  man  is  nowhere  considered  more  sacred  than  in 
the  matter  of  the  selection  of  companionship.  He  is  a  being  of  multiplied 
motives.  He  is  governed  by  social  surroundings,  by  ambition,  by  a  variety 
of  characteristics,  and  these  are  governing  features  with  him.  He  is  moved 
by  the  influence  of  beauty,  wealth,  social  advantages,  parental  influences, 
sometimes  by  the  superior  persuasive  powers  of  the  woman  who  would 
exercise  control  over  him.  If  we  are  to  have  a  science  out  of  eugenics  that 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  77 

is  anything  more  than  good  advice,  there  must  be  some  abridgment  of  the 
free  agency  of  man. 

Religion  Fundamental. — One  of  the  perhaps  insurmountable  troubles  in 
the  way  of  extreme  advocates  of  eugenics  is  the  fact  that  religion,  and  not 
intelligence  and  wealth,  is  fundamental  in  human  life,  and  the  basis  of  a 
sound  and  lasting  social  life.  As  men  grow  in  social  advantages,  in  wealth 
and  intelligence,  they  are  beset  by  increasing  temptations, — temptations  that 
lead  them  to  such  excesses  as  undermine  their  physical  powers,  and  when 
these  give  way  the  whole  superstructure  of  economic  and  intellectual  life 
gives  way.  Thus  we  see  nations  rising  and  falling.  We  see  social  life  in 
its  exalted  and  deepest  conditions.  If  history  is  pronounced  in  one  thing  it 
is  the  swing  of  the  pendulum  between  the  extremes  of  morality  and  im- 
morality. 

Spirituality,  or  if  you  please,  real  goodness,  is  not  so  self  advertising 
as  intelligence  or  material  wealth.  By  its  very  nature  it  is  modest  and 
retiring.  It  is  a  quality  that  may  be  operated  through  many  generations  for 
the  uplift  of  human  society.  Those  who  advocate  eugenics  find  it  extremely 
difficult  to  go  back  to  those  modest  beginnings  in  order  to  find  the  proper 
starting  point.  Indeed,  how  can  they  know?  The  heart  of  man  belongs 
to  the  revelations  of  God.  The  Lord  said  to  Samuel,  who  was  seeking 
among  the  sons  of  Jesse  for  a  king,  that  he  did  not  look  upon  men  with 
the  eyes  of  man.  He  knew  their  hearts.  But  how  can  finite  beings  know 
these  hidden  conditions? 

The  uplift  of  the  human  race  through  proper  mating  must  grow  there- 
fore from  obscure,  often  hidden  beginnings,  through  generations  to  a  sound 
and  substantial  life.  Such  changes  are  too  microscopic  for  the  men  of 
science.  They  cover  too  long  a  period  for  man's  patient  work.  Indeed, 
all  of  the  investigators  of  eugenics  show  that  they  are  concerned  with  two 
extremes, — the  extremely  intelligent  and  those  who  are  extremely  criminal; 
and  their  investigations,  even  in  these  two  classes,  as  I  have  shown  else- 
where, are  not  satisfactory. 

Movements  are  now  afoot  to  begin  the  investigation  of  the  development 
of  genius  in  certain  families.  Investigators  go  back  a  few  generations.  They 
cannot  go  far.  They  are  tabulating  their  data  and  trying  to  demonstrate 
to  us  as  far  as  possible  the  infallibility  of  their  doctrine.  What  families 
are  these?  They  are  families  often  of  genius,  which  science  has  proved 
is  not  hereditary.  Some  are  men  of  wealth,  who  are  merely  a  part  of  a 
new  made  rich.  The  advocates  of  this  doctrine  are  extremely  enthusiastic. 
Their  motives  are  all  right,  but  extremists  always  carry  with  them  the 
danger  of  excess,  and  their  conclusions  should  be  received  with  many 
reservations.  If  the  extreme  advocates  of  this  science  are  permitted  to 
exercise  a  very  general  and  a  very  strong  influence  over  our  social  and 
political  life,  they  may  endanger  society  as  well  as  government. 

Laws  for  the  Unfit. — The  tide  of  eugenic  science  ran  high  in  1913.  In 
that  year,  North  Dakota,  Kansas,  Wisconsin  and  Michigan,  passed 
c  rtain  eugenic  laws  for  the  sterilization  of  the  unfit.  The  unfit  in  the 
beginning  was  to  include  the  insane  and  the  habitual  criminal, — especially 
the  rapist.  It  is  undesirable,  of  course,  that  they  perpetuate  their  class, 
but  will  the  advocates  of  eugenics  stop  there?  What  they  want  to  do  is  to 
eliminate  those  who  are  unfit;  but  who  are  unfit?  It  is  a  serious  question, 
— so  serious  that  Oregon  repealed  her  eugenic  law  on  referendum.  The 
pioneers  of  legislation  in  this  law  were  the  states  of  Washington,  Iowa, 
Nevada  and  New  York.  Such  advocates  assume  too  much.  They  assume 
that  there  is  a  distinct  and  well-defined  science  or  law  of  heredity, — a 
science  that  has  so  many  exceptions  that  great  writers  have  come  to  re- 
pudiate it  as  a  fixed  science  whose  investigations  have  no  practical  value. 

Ambitions  of  Women. — The  women  of  our  state  are  perhaps  the  most 
enthusiastic  advocates  of  eugenics.  They  are  ambitious  in  parentage.  With 
them  child  life  has  a  closer  and  deeper  meaning  than  it  has  with  men.  They 
insist  often  that  it  is  their  right  to  choose  the  future  fathers  of  their  chil- 


78  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

dren,  but  how?  -What  sort  of  regulation  could  be  devised  that  would 
permit  any  important  class  to  make  such  selections?  Of  course,  they  would 
be  ambitious,  but  the  comparatively  few  properly  fit  to  meet  that  ambition 
would  practically  exclude  the  masses.  There  is,  as  some  writers  point  out, 
a  greater  uniformity  in  high  quality  female  life  than  there  is  among  the 
males.  In  the  animal  industry  world,  males  for  breeding  purposes  are  se- 
lected with  great  care  and  with  such  numerous  limitations  as  to  produce 
only  a  few  that  are  physically  fit.  France,  in  the  matter  of  horses,  has  car- 
ried this  selection  to  a  very  high  degree.  In  the  female  animal  world  the 
rejections  are  much  fewer,  showing  that  in  that  class  there  is  a  distinct  and 
superior  uniformity.  How  about  the  human  world?  In  matters  of  mating 
the  high  grade  of  uniformity  shows  a  higher  percentage  of  the  females  than 
exists  in  the  animal  world.  In  other  words  the  number  of  women  fit  for 
superior  womanhood  is  vastly  in  excess  of  the  number  of  men.  We  need 
not  consider  the  reasons  assigned  from  a  physical  point  of  view  for  this 
superior  and  general  uniformity.  The  proofs  of  the  difference  are  apparent 
to  all  among  the  most  striking  illustrations  of  social  life.  One  of  the 
greatest  causes  for  this  difference  lies  perhaps  in  the  so-called  double 
standards, — standards  which  separate  the  physical,  spiritual,  and  ultimtaely 
intellectual  lives  of  the  two  classes.  The  difference  is  vital.  The  condi- 
tions that  make  for  the  double  standard  are  ultimately  destructive  to  the 
aims  that  the  advocates  of  eugenics  have  in  view. 

In  addition,  we  should  have  ultimately  pronounced  class  distinctions. 
There  would  soon  be  the  super-man  and  the  super-woman,  the  high  class 
or  the  high-brow,  and  intellectuals  of  all  sorts  of  classical  distinctions, 
which  would  bring  in  their  train  social  disorder.  We  have  had  some  strik- 
ing illustrations.  Royalty  throughout  Europe  has  asserted  its  claim  to 
superiority.  Princes  and  princesses  are  brought  up  to  be  kings,  queens, 
empresses  and  other  sorts  of  royalty.  They  have  had  the  advantages  of 
wealth,  of  opportunity,  of  training.  Has  the  Royal  class  made  good?  Is 
the  genius  of  the  world  inherited  from  among  them?  Are  they  the  actual 
rulers,  and  what  generally  do  we  think  of  the  royal  personages  of  Europe 
in  these  trying  and  distressing  hours?  Some  investigation  of  that  class  has 
been  made  and  in  conclusion  I  quote  from  the  writings  of  Fahlbeck,  who 
has  what  is  considered  an  authoritative  work  upon  Swedish  nobility.  Of 
that  class  he  says: 

"It  has  been  shown  how  caste  marriages  prevailing  among  them 
produce  a  progressive  degeneration,  which  manifests  itself  by  frequent 
celibacy,  much  delayed  marriage  of  the  male  sex,  the  large  and  in- 
creasing portion  of  sterile  marriages,  the  small  and  decreasing  fecund- 
ity (now  15.4  per  cent)  always  less  than  the  death  rate,  the  increasing 
number  of  female  births,  the  increasing  mortality  of  youths  under  20 
years  of  age,  the  deaths  of  the  children  before  that  of  the  parents, 
which  gradually  tends  to  cause  the  extinction  of  the  stock.  As  a  con- 
sequence of  that,  70  per  cent  of  the  original  noble  families  are  now 
extinct,  and  notwithstanding  the  continual  ennobling  of  bourgeois  fam- 
ilies, the  number  of  noble  families  does  not  increase  or  very  often  de- 
clines." 

And  Fahlbeck  takes  care  to  add  that  all  this  applies  precisely  to  the 
whole  wealthy  class,  of  which  the  nobility  is  only  a  fragment. 


XXXI— Back  to  the  Land 

Present  Conditions. — In  another  chapter  I  have  called  attention  to  the 
excessive  and  dangerous  growth  of  the  so-called  middle-class,  or  non- 
producers.  Conditions  have  favored  their  occupations,  and  financial  pros- 
perity has  perhaps  attended  them  more  generously  than  it  has  the  farmer. 
The  war.  however,  is  bringing  about  a  very  realistic  change:  governments 
that  provide  for  the  armies  have  been  liberal  buyers.  They  have  fed  the 
soldiers  better  on  the  battlefields  than  the  same  men  have  been  cared  for  in 
times  of  peace.  Such  excessive  Government  demands  naturally  make 
prices  high.  It  should  then  be  observed  that  a  very  large  proportion  of 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  79 

every  army  is  taken  from  the  producing  classes,  especially  from  the  farms, 
where  the  vigor  of  manhood  is  perhaps  more  abundantly  found.  A  large 
army  of  farm  men  will  lose  their  lives  in  battle  or  become  cripples,  and 
thereby  unfitted  for  farm  life.  It  goes,  therefore,  without  saying,  that  the 
number  of  men  qualified  to  conduct  operations  upon  the  farm  will  be 
enormously  decreased.  In  the  civilized  countries  of  the  world  there  is  no 
place  for  the  "mujik"  or  the  "fellahin."  Farm  work  has  made  rapid  strides 
in  the  direction  of  scientific  practice  and  theory. 

As  a  nation  grows  in  years,  it  settles  down  to  an  inherited  classification; 
as  with  father,  so  with  son.  It  will  not  be  easy  to  tear  men  up  from  the 
roots  of  their  social  and  business  inheritance  and  experiences  and  transform 
them  into  a  new  and  different  life.  It  will  require  great  suffering  to  bring 
about  such  an  exchange  on  any  extensive  scale.  Such  conditions  mean  the 
continued  burden  of  higher  cost  in  living. 

Want  of  Preparation. — Our  agricultural  schools  will  not  alleviate  very 
greatly  such  an  unfortunate  condition.  They  are  based  too  extensively  on 
the  rest  of  our  school  practice.  We  seem  to  forget  that  the  most  serious 
thing  about  education  is  the  habit  which  our  modern  school  system  fastens 
upon  our  child  life, — the  book  habit.  Our  children  learn  to  hear  things, 
and  they  learn  to  tell  things,  but  only  in  rare  cases  do  they  acquire  the 
actual  habit  of  doing  things.  If  we  acquire  the  wrong  habit  of  life,  what 
we  learn  has  little  practical  value,  because  the  habits  we  have  acquired 
prevent  us  from  putting  our  knowledge  into  practice.  I  have  often  heard 
mothers  say  that  though  their  daughters  do  not  cook  and  do  much  house- 
work, they  know  how  to  do  it.  They  can  make  the  best  of  bread,  and  in 
fact  do  well  any  kind  of  housework.  But  there  is  after  all  a  wide  differ- 
ence between  acquiring  the  ability  to  do  a  thing  and  the  habit  of  doing  it. 
Ability  may  be  acquired  in  a  very  short  time,  whereas  it  takes  years  to 
acquire  a  habit.  It  is  not,  therefore,  so  much  a  question  of  what  this  girl 
can  do,  but  her  willingness,  her  contentment,  her  happiness, — in  other  words, 
her  habit  of  doing  it. 

Value  of  Farm  Life. — The  habits  of  our  lives  are  more  and  more  away 
from  the  farm.  Farmers  send  their  children  to  school,  and  likewise  change 
the  habits  of  their  lives,  so  that  the  farm  is  now  in  a  process  of  race  suicide. 
We  may  as  well  face  an  unpleasant  truth,  and  confess  a  belief  that  the 
occupation  of  the  middle-man  is  really  more  respectable,  and  therefore 
more  desirable  than  work  on  the  farm.  The  influence  of  dress  is  beyond 
computation.  The  world  of  fashion  lays  its  load  even  jipon  the  farm  boy, 
and  persuades  him  to  be  a  devotee  of  worldly  fashion.  Again,  work  on  the 
farm  is  more  strenuous:  it  has  its  out-of-door  life,  its  storms,  blizzards, 
cold,  heat,  and  other  things  that  make  life  often  quite  uncomfortable.  In 
contrast  with  these  unpleasant  conditions,  young  people  usually  manifest 
preference  for  employment  that  takes  them  away  from  this  important  source 
of  production. 

Are  we  really  destroying  farm  life?  If  so,  we  are  adding  by  so  much 
to  the  burdens  which  we  now  feel  from  the  high  cost  of  living.  It  is  a 
fallacy  to  suppose  that  in  the  civilized  world  there  will  be  enough  people  in 
the  so-called  lower  strata  of  industrial  life  to  do  all  the  work  needed  on  the 
farm.  The  truth  is  that  education  is  becoming  universal.  The  same  ideals 
and  aspirations  are  reaching  the  boys  on  the  farm  that  affect  the  boys  in 
the  so-called  more  refined  occupations  of  city  life.  What  does  it  mean? 
The  last  ten  years  has  taught  us  something  of  its  meaning.  The  next  ten  years 
will  teach  us  vastly  more.  "O,  well,"  it  will  be  answered,  "men  will  come  to 
the  farm  when  there  is  more  money  in  it."  Such  a  statement  is  made  in 
blind  ignorance  of  facts.  In  the  first  place,  men  will  have  to  be  trained 
for  the  farms  as  they  are  for  other  occupations.  If,  through  their  habits 
of  life,  the  farm  is  uncongenial  to  them,  they  will  work  only  half-heartedly. 

Farm  Education. — What  we  need  is  a  saner  belief  among  people  gen- 
erally of  what  the  farm  stands  for.  Our  vocational  life  today  is  guided  in 


80  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

the  vast  majority  of  cases  by  financial  considerations.  It  is  not  an  uncom- 
mon thing  to  see  men  leave  the  bent  of  their  minds,  turn  from  the  gifts 
with  which  God  has  liberally  endowed  them,  to  engage  often  in  some  un- 
congenial pursuit,  because  "there's  money  in  it."  Can  a  world  made  up 
almost  wholly  of  Mammon  endure? 

By  the  sweat  of  his  brow  man  was  required  to  live;  that  was  the  in- 
junction to  Adam  in  the  Garden  of  Eden.  Those  who  evade  it  pay  the 
penalty,  generally  in  physical  deterioration.  "How  can  you  stand  it?"  said 
an  on-looker  to  a  man  drudging  at  his  work  in  the  dirt  and  mud.  "I  can 
stand  it,"  he  replied,  "because  I  am  remunerated  in  the  fullest  degree  by  the 
enjoyment  of  my  food  and  sleep."  Of  course  there  is  overwork:  every 
virtue  offers  some  opportunity  for  abuse.  We  are  learning  through  this  war 
something  of  the  value  of  a  vigorous  manhood  as  an  asset  to  national  wealth 
and  events.  Men  and  women  who  maintain  proper  physical  valuations  in 
their  lives,  perform  an  important  duty  to  themselves,  but  they  perform  one 
equally  great  to  their  children,  and  their  children's  children  after  them. 
"We  owe  our  children  an  education."  That  is  true,  but  there  is  a  priority 
lien  upon  their  right  to  enjoy  health  and  vigorous  bodies,  which  nothing 
promotes  more  than  farm  life. 

Morals  of  the  Farm. — Our  farm  life  has  also  great  moral  value.  It  af- 
fords less  time  for  idleness,  with  its  attendant  evils.  There  is  more  remove 
from  social  evils.  It  brings  men  into  intimate  contact  with  the  inexorable 
laws  of  Nature,  which  he  learns  to  respect  more  upon  the  farm  than  per- 
haps anywhere  else  in  the  world.  There  he  enjoys  more  than  elsewhere  the 
double  opportunity  of  self-examination  and  communion  with  his  conscience 
and  the  punishments  which  Nature  inflicts,  not  only  upon  those  who  violate 
her  laws,  but  upon  those  who  neglect  them.  "Back  to  the  land"  has  also  its 
intellectual  value,  because  physical  and  intellectual  manhood  and  woman- 
hood are  kindred.  Then  we  have  come  to  study  the  whys  and  the  where- 
fores, and  the  processes  of  Nature.  The  farm  offers  abundant  opportunities 
for  meditations,  analogies,  and  those  studious  wonderments  that  help  men 
and  women  on  to  investigate  and  know  the  deeper  truths  of  life.  In  city 
life,  in  business  life,  men  ponder  too  little, — meditation  is  thrown  to  the 
winds.  Man's  place  in  the  universe,  and  his  relationship  to  God  take  but 
slight  hold  upon  his  life.  There  is  a  vast  difference  between  making  two 
blades  of  grass  grow  where  one  grew  before  and  making  $2.00  where  only 
$1.00  was  won  before.  The  former  process  requires  time,  industry,  patience, 
hope,  and  faith.  You  cannot  cheat  Mother  Nature.  If  you  do,  you  will 
raise  a  sickly  spear  of  grass  or  none  at  all.  Nature  has  her  inexorable  laws. 
She  demands  an  honorable  compensation.  Not  so  in  business  life:  it  is 
much  easier  to  cheat  men  than  it  is  to  swindle  nature.  The  Latter-dav  Saints, 
under  a  guiding  Providence,  have  been  driven  into  industrial  and  farm  life 
in  all  their  great  movements  from  their  homes  in  the  East  to  the  unredeemed 
lands  of  the  West.  Agriculture  was  their  first  problem  on  entering  the  val- 
leys of  the  mountains.  They  encourage  it;  they  know  its  virtues  and  its 
values.  It  would  be  strange  indeed  if  the  present  movement  awav  from 
the  land  did  not  touch  them  in  vital  parts;  but  fundamentally,  they  love  to 
till  the  soil,  from  a  sense  of  duty  as  well  as  from  a  wish  for  gain.  Many 
will  remember  the  ridicule  that  was  piled  upon  them  in  days  gone  by  be- 
cause they  talked  water  ditches  and  the  best  methods  of  farming,  from  the 
pulpit.  They  knew  their  God-appointed  task,  and  went  about  it  in  their 
appointed  ay. 

The  cry  has  gone,  as  a  voice  out  of  the  wilderness,  "Back  to  the  Land." 
But  will  the  cry  be  more  a  wail  of  distress  than  a  heartfelt  desire  to  relieve 
the  burden  of  the  world  by  lending  a  helping  hand  to  that  industry  that 
offers  grave  dangers  by  the  neglect  of  it  to  the  social  and  industrial  happi- 
ness of  the  world. 

Revelation. — "And,  as  I,  the  Lord,  in  the  beginning  cursed  the  land, 
so  in  the  last  days  have  I  blessed  it,  in  its  time,  for  the  use  of  my  Saints, 
that  they  may  partake  the  fatness  thereof  (Doc.  and  Cov.  61:17). 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  81 


XXXII.—Back  to  the  Land  (Continued) 

Increase  in  Production. — A  great  increase  in  production  may  be 
achieved  by  the  tillage  of  waste  lands  in  different  parts  of  the  less  civilized 
countries,  such  as  Russia  and  Turkey.  But  it  is  doubtful  if  these  countries 
will  prove  very  attractive  to  a  farming  element  that  has  grown  up  in  the 
enjoyment  of  higher  civilization. 

Great  increase  in  production  may  also  be  brought  about  by  the  more 
intensive  cultivation  of  the  soil.  Agricultural  writers  point  out,  therefore, 
the  great  future  possibilities  and  the  great  inducements  that  may  be  counted 
on  to  take  men  from  the  distributive  and  speculative  centers  of  our  com- 
mercial life  back  to  farming.  There  are,  however,  some  very  distinct  ob- 
stacles in  the  way  of  a  return  to  the  land.  There  are  two  sources  by 
which  it  may  be  obtained:  first,  through  our  system  of  Government  gifts 
by  means  of  homesteads  and  pre-emptions.  Lands  are  rising  in  value. 
The  war  and  even  pre-war  conditions  have  shown  the  great  financial  oppor- 
tunities of  farm  life.  Those  who  have  struggled  through  many  years  of 
want,  and  scarcity  will  appreciate  and  enjoy  the  rising  values  of  farm 
produce.  They  will  cling  more  tenaciously  to  their  lands,  and  lands  will 
not  in  time  be  so  easily  acquired. 

Equipment. — The  equipment  of  a  modern  farm  is  not  by  any  means 
what  it  was  twenty  years  ago.  Whether  a  man  uses  horses  or  engines  of 
modern  make,  the  equipment  becomes  extremely  expensive.  Farm  machinery 
is  soaring  in  value,  and  the  cost  of  equipping  a  modern  farm  runs  into  the 
thousands.  Then  men  must  wait  for  returns — sometimes  one,  two,  or  even 
three  years. 

Live  Stock. — Live  stock  is  becoming  scarcer  and  more  expensive;  it  is 
estimated  that  since  the  war  began  there  has  been  a  decrease  of  the  live 
stock  in  Europe  of  something  over  115,000,000  head,  and  this  loss  consists, 
for  the  most  part,  in  breeding  stock.  If  these  countries  regain  their  past  na- 
tional prosperity  in  agriculture  and  livestock,  the  governments  must  come 
to  the  assistance  of  the  farmers.  That  will,  of  course,  mean  increased  tax- 
ation and  the  threatened  break-up  of  social  life  that  is  sure  to  follow  any 
breakdowns  among  the  governments  of  Europe.  In  this  country  it  will  be 
more  difficult  for  the  government  to  finance  individual  farms. 

After  War  Conditions. — Some  very  important  changes  are  taking  place 
during  the  present  war  that  must  have  far-reaching  consequences  when  peace 
comes:  those  who  have  any  familiarity  with  living  conditions  among  the  mil- 
lions of  toilers  in  Europe  can  readily  underrtand  how  greatly  their  diet  has 
been  improved  by  the  governments  which  drafted  them  into  war.  It  is  esti- 
mated by  some  that  the  soldier  is  eating  at  least  five  times  as  much  meat  as 
he  ate  in  private  life.  Some  figure  that  the  increase  has  been  ten-fold.  As 
the  war  lasts  into  years,  the  meat-eating  habit  will  grow  upon  the  soldier; 
his  improved  diet  he  will  not  easily  surrender  when  peace  comes,  and  it 
must  depend  on  his  wage-earning  capacity.  He  has  learned  during  this  war 
that  the  government  may  do  many  things  to  ameliorate  the  stringent  condi- 
tions of  peace  life.  With  meat  growing  scarcer  and  the  meat-eating  habit 
increasing,  it  is  not  difficult  to  foresee  grave  dangers  to  financial  and  social 
order  with  the  return  of  peace. 

Live  Stock. — As  a  restriction  upon  any  rapid  increase  in  agriculture, 
we  are  confronted  by  the  fact  that  our  horsepower  has  also  decreased  rap- 
idly since  the  war  began.  Tractors,  it  is  true,  may  take  the  place  of  this 
old  friend  of  the  farm,  but  that  means  also  an  enormous  increase  in  gasoline, 
which  is  likely  to  be  almost  entirely  consumed  by  trucks  and  pleasure  autos. 
The  department  of  Washington  has  given  out  statistics  upon  our  decrease 
in  horsepower  throughout  the  United  States.  I  quote  as  follows  from  the 
New  York  Herald,  Sunday,  September  14,  1917: 


82  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

"Figures  recently  published  bv  the  Department  of  Commerce  at 
Washington  show  that  exports  of  horses  in  the  last  fiscal  year  aggre- 
gated 278,674,  as  compared  with  357,553  in  1916,  and  289,340  in  1915. 
Exports  of  mules  during  the  same  period  were  65,788  in  1915,  111,915 
In  1916,  and  136,689  in  1917.  Here  is  a  total  of  928,567  horses  and 
314,392  mules  sent  abroad  in  the  three  years  ending  last  June,  or  a 
total  of  1,239,959  horses  and  mules. 

"The  period  covered  by  the  official  figures  goes  back  to  'the  day' 
of  Germany's  amazing  attempt  to  repeat  Bismarck's  successful  coup 
de  main  of  1870,  with  the  world  instead  of  France  alone  as  the  ob- 
jective. These  revised  government  statistic^  thus  fairly  represent  all 
horses  and  mules  sent  to  the  war  zone  up  to  last  July,  since  which 
time  the  shipments  are  understood  to  have  been  comparatively  light. 

"The  value  of  American  war  horses  exported  now  exceeds  a  quar- 
ter of  a  billion  dollars.  The  government  estimate  is  $197,103,009  for 
horses  and  $63,497,309  for  mules,  making  a  total  of  $260,590,318.  This 
is  an  average  of  about  $212  for  horses  and  $201  for  mules." 

There  is  now  also  a  very  pronounced  movement  in  favor  of  eating 
horse-flesh.  The  use  of  horses  for  food  in  European  countries  has  become 
quite  general.  It  enters  particularly  strongly  in  the  production  of  a  great 
variety  of  sausages,  and  millions  of  pounds  of  horses  are  every  year  con- 
sumed in  European  countries.  In  the  United  States  there  are  probably  five 
million  men  who,  during  their  lives  in  various  nations  of  Europe,  have  ac- 
quired the  habit  of  eating  horse-flesh.  They  declare  that  such  meat  has  not 
only  a  pleasing  taste,  but  that  it  is  also  wholesome  and  is  indeed  preferred 
by  some  even  to  beef  or  pork.  These  European  immigrants  would  fre- 
quently return  to  the  diet  of  horse  meat  to  which  they  were  accustomed  in 
their  native  lands.  Their  wives  and  children  will  also  eat  it,  and  there  is 
going  on  today  in  the  United  States  an  agitation  for  the  repeal  of  those 
laws  which  exclude  horse  flesh  as  an  article  of  food. 

Land  Values  and  Mortgages. — I  give  below  some  figures  showing  the 
enormous  liabilities  which  farmers  through  the  United  States  have  incurred 
by  means  of  loans.  In  many  instances  they  represent  purchases  and  im- 
provements, but  no  doubt  in  a  large  number  of  cases  loans  represent  the 
pressing  needs  of  the  farmers  for  running  expenses,  together  with  some 
extravagances,  of  which  they  are  no  doubt  guilty.  The  margin  on  an  aver- 
age between  expenses  and  profits  has  not  been  very  great.  The  success,  how- 
ever, of  the  farmers  in  elevating  past  conditions  show  that  the  industry  of 
agriculture  is  becoming  more  profitable.  I  quote  from  The  Outlook  of 
September  26,  1917: 

Value  of  American  farms,  $40,000,000,000. 

Value  of  annual  farm  output  in  food  and  other  raw  materials, 
$10,000,000,000. 

Public  investment  in  long-time  loans  (mortgages)  on  the  $40,- 
000,000,000  worth  of  farm  property,  $3,500,000,000. 

Seasonal  short-time  credit  granted  by  banks  to  farmers  on  the 
security  of  the  $10,000,000,000  harvest,  $2,000,000,000. 

Total  agricultural  credit,  $5,500,000,000. 

*  *  *  *  * 

Two  hundred  and  twenty  life  insurance  companies  own  $700,- 
000,000  farm  mortgages. 

Eighteen  thousand  banks  (State  banks,  trust  companies  and  sav- 
ings banks)  own  $750,000,000. 

Private  investors,  estates,  trustees,  colleges,  and  other  institutions, 
both  American  and  foreign,  have  $2,000,000,000  invested  in  these  loans 
on  farm  lands.  Of  this  $2,000,000,000  about  $500,000,000  has  been  sold 
through  the  medium  of  the  banks,  while  the  remaining  $1,500,000,000 
has  been  arranged  either  through  the  agency  of  farm  mortgage  banking 
houses  or  directly  between  lender  and  borrower. 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  83 

Investment  houses  that  have  been  in  business  for  half  a  century, 
lending  money  to  farmers  on  the  security  of  land  under  cultivation, 
report  that  they  have  never  lost  a  dollar  of  principal  or  interest  for 
any  customer. 

The  insurance  company  having  the  largest  investment  in  farm 
mortgages  ($100,000,000)  states  that  it  has  never  been  able  to  discover 
a  more  desirable  channel  in  which  to  invest  its  funds. 

Universities  and  other  institutions  that  for  many  years  have  been 
placing  all  or  part  of  their  endowment  funds  in  farm  mortgages  report 
that  they  have  suffered  no  losses,  and  know  of  no  safer  way  to  obtain 
their  income. 

The  banks  of  one  of  the  smaller  Eastern  states,  that  have  invested 
nearly  fifty  millions  of  their  depositors'  funds  in  Western  mortgages, 
have  made  but  one  loss  in  thousands  of  transactions  extending  over 
many  years. 

A  number  of  Canadian  companies  in  business  for  forty  years  have 
never  failed  to  pay  interest  and  principal  to  their  clients.  No  Cana- 
dian mortgage  company  has  ever  defaulted  on  a  payment  due  to  a 
farm  mortgage  investor. 

The  best  test  of  the  soundness  of  farm  mortgages  as  investments 
is  that  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  of  them  are  held  by  our  most 
conservative  institutions — savings  banks,  trust  companies,  and  life  in- 
surance companies. 

***** 

The  period  of  wildcat  and  careless  farm  mortgage  flotation  has 
the  same  relation  to  the  farm  mortgage  business  today  that  the  earlier 
period  of  wildcat  state  banking  has  to  present-day  banking.  Those 
days  are  long  since  gone.  There  is  no  more  possibility  of  the  farm 
mortgage  business  being  undermined  by  unsound  management  than 
there  is  of  our  banking  system  falling  to  pieces.  Since  the  collapse 
of  those  inflated  companies  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  no  field  of 
investment  in  America  has  had  so  clean  a  record.  But  even  through 
the  days  of  the  farm  mortgage  company  craze  there  were  the  houses 
that  continued  to  do  business  on  conservative  lines  and  are  doing 
business  today  with  the  enviable  record  of  never  having  lost  a  dollar 
for  an  investor.  In  what  other  field  of  investment  could  such  a  record 
be  found? 


XXXIII.— Fast  Offerings 

Law  of  Sacrifice. — The  law  of  sacrifice  is  one  of  the  most  universal  of 
God's  laws.  When  ancient  Israel  put  upon  the  altar  the  firstlings  and  the 
best  of  their  flocks  and  herds  and  saw  the  flesh  consumed  in  smoke,  they 
would  not  be  human  if  they  did  not  feel  some  taint  of  selfishness  and  a 
disposition  to  keep  the  best  for  their  own  use.  In  the  days  of  their  devotion 
to  God  they  were  strictly  honest  in  this  divine  requirement.  In  the  days  of 
their  transgressions,  sacrifices  were  performed  in  a  perfunctorv  manner  and 
without  any  scrupulous  efforts  to  perform  exactly  the  requirements  of  God. 

Emerson,  in  his  "Law  of  Compensation,"  undertakes  to  show  how  well 
balanced  our  gains  and  losses,  our  prosperity  and  reverses,  our  benefits  and 
adversities  are.  What  a  man  gains  in  money  he  may  lose  in  health.  What 
he  gains  in  the  financial  world  he  may  lose  in  self-respect.  What  he  gains 
in  intrigue  he  may  lose  in  friendship.  All  in  all,  among  the  inhabitants  of 
the  earth,  the  unequal  gaining  qualities  are  not  so  great  as  might  be  sup- 
posed. 

Fasting. — God  requires  of  his  people,  for  example,  the  observance  of  a 
fast  day  once  a  month.  For  each  person  in  the  home  a  certain  amount  is 
required  as  a  fast  offering,  and  when  this  law  is  properly  observed  it  netB 
a  very  considerable  income  for  the  support  of  the  poor.  True,  people  get 
hungry,  but  it  is  in  that  state  of  physical  want  that  their  humility  and  sym- 


84  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

pathies  are  reached.    It  is  in  that  state  of  physical  want  that  they  are  com- 
pelled to  stop  and  think  of  those  who  are  in  actual  need  of  food. 

The  satisfied  man  is  not  always  a  very  grateful  man.  Neither  is  he  a 
sympathetic  or  generous  hearted  man.  It  would  be  calamitous  to  the  human 
family  if  people  experienced  only  the  feelings  of  satisfaction.  In  this  active, 
feverish  age,  men  are  asked  to  stop  and  think,  weigh  and  consider.  Once 
a  month  fast  day  gives  them  a  most  excellent  opportunity. 

Prayer. — God,  in  his  requirements,  as  set  forth  in  the  Doctrine  and  Cov- 
enants, has  prescribed  that  along  with  fasting  there  should  be  observed  the 
practice  of  prayer.  The  two  are  naturally  associated.  Men  may,  when  in  a 
state  of  hunger,  think  of  their  hunger,  but  they  do  not  give  themselves  up 
to  the  sins  of  self-satisfaction.  Their  physical  condition  reminds  them  that 
whatever  the  obligations  of  life  may  be,  there  is  a  duty  toward  the  poor 
and  toward  God. 

The  Lord,  in  establishing  the  principle  of  fast  offering,  says  that  the 
Saints  should  fast  that  their  joy  may  be  full.  It  is  the  fulfilment  of  a  duty 
in  a  quest  for  joy.  The  reaction  from  a  day  of  fasting  is  one  of  apprecia- 
tion and  gratitude,  and  a  sense  of  appreciation  carries  with  it  a  very  large 
measure  of  joy.  Men  and  women,  therefore,  are  blessed  in  their  lives  and 
their  spirits  and  their  contentment  when  they  fulfil  a  duty  from  which  they 
may,  if  they  will,  receive  some  special  blessing. 

One  of  the  troubles  that  people  in  this  world  suffer  from  is  the  dispo- 
sition to  be  forgetful.  They  do  not  think  of  the  poor,  and  when  they  do 
not  think  of  people  much  they  care  little  for  them.  Then  the  rich  oppress 
the  poor.  Such  would  hardly  be  the  case  were  they  fasting  and  praying 
for  those  who  need  their  offering.  Christ  said,  "The  poor  ye  have  with 
you  always."  They  are  a  part  of  every  community,  of  every  state,  of  every 
nation.  The  manner  of  seeking  alms  for  their  support  is  very  often  annoy- 
ing, nor  is  it  always  generously  given. 

Compensations. — There  are  two  compensations  to  fasting.  One  is  its 
bodily  advantages;  as  a  health-promoting  practice,  too  much  cannot  be  said 
of  it.  On  the  other  hand,  it  supplies  an  abundant  need  for  those  who  are 
poor.  Let  us  say  that  in  the  United  States  there  are  a  hundred  million 
people,  that  the  fast  offerings  once  a  month  average  only  10  cents  per 
person  throughout  the  whole  country.  That  would  mean  $10,000,000  a  month 
or  $120,000,000  a  year.  That  is  an  enormous  sum  and  would  go  far  towards 
alleviating  the  sufferings  of  those  who  were  too  poor  to  meet  the  needs  of 
their  daily  lives. 

"Tie  organization  of  the  Church  is  such  that  when  the  fast  offerings 
in  one  ward  or  district  are  not  all  required  by  the  members  of  that  ward 
they  may  be  transferred  directly  to  the  Presiding  Bishop  of  the  Church,  who 
distributes  them  to  those  wards  which  need  them  more  and  have  more  poor 
people  in  their  midst.  The  General  Bishop  of  the  Church  has  an  office 
which  might  be  properly  called  a  clearing  house  for  fast  day  contributions, 
to  the  poor. 

What  Fast  Offering  Would  Mean  to  United  States. — If  the  contribu- 
tions were  15  cents  a  month  per  capita,  they  would  mean  $15,000,000  a 
month,  or  $180,000,000  a  year.  It  is  a  vast  amount,  but  it  would  be  both 
given  and  saved,  and  no  hardship  whatever  would  be  felt. 

On  fast  day  the  meeting  is  given  over  to  the  audiences  to  bear  testi- 
monies, give  expression  to  their  gratitude  and  thankfulness  to  God  for  the 
favors  they  enjoy.  A  spirit  of  dependence  prevails.  The  congregation  feel 
the  necessity  of  one  another's  love  and  support.  The  hunger  which  they 
experience  teaches  them  that  God  is  the  giver  of  life,  that  after  all,  to  him 
we  owe  our  "daily  bread." 

Poverty  General. — There  are  those  whom  the  Doctrine  and  Covenants 
classes  "unworthy  poor" — those  who  through  idleness,  delay  and  neglect  are 
themselves  responsible  for  the  unfortunate  financial  circumstances  in  which 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  85 

they  find  themselves.  There  are  millions  of  the  human  family  with  inferior 
earning  capacity,  and  it  is  not  a  very  easy  matter  to  determine  who  are  the 
deserving  and  who  are  the  undeserving;  but  poverty  is  a  condition  that 
should  be  ameliorated  as  far  as  possible  by  those  who  are  in  a  position 
to  do  so.  It  would  be  better  to  give  some  to  the  unworthy  than  to  neglect 
in  fine  discriminations  those  who  are  deserving.  It  should  here  be  stated, 
however,  that  poverty  is  not  necessarily  an  evil.  It  exists  the  world  over, 
and  some  cases  are  due  no  doubt  to  unfavorable  circumstances  and  condi- 
tions over  which  people  have  no  control.  In  a  last  analysis  something  may 
be  said  in  favor  of  the  disiciplinary  value  of  those  who  are  not  possessed 
with  much  of  this  world's  goods.  When  men  and  women  border  on  want 
they  naturally  feel  a  dependence  that  otherwise  they  do  not  experience.  Pov- 
erty may  then  be  said,  in  some  instances,  to  be  a  positive  blessing,  since  it 
prevents  men  and  women  from  the  indulgences  of  those  evils  which  money 
too  frequently  encourages.  It  is  said  that  among  2,500,000  rejects  for  the 
army  in  the  recent  drafts  a  large  majority  of  them  came  from  the  families  of 
the  rich  and  well-to-do.  They  have  been  running  their  race  rapidly  and 
are  unfitted  therefore  for  military  service.  A  recent  suggestion  has  come 
from  the  physicians  of  the  country  that  notwithstanding  their  physical  de- 
ficiencies, they  be  drafted  and  taken  into  the  training  camps  in  order  that 
their  manhood  and  physical  ad\ancement  may  be  greatly  helped.  This, 
however,  would  bring  upon  our  country  a  large  expense  for  many  that  are 
not  needed  and  for  the  undeserving. 

In  the  early  periods  of  the  Church  men  were  required  to  consecrate  the 
property  which  they  did  not  really  need.  This  law  of  consecration  brought 
the  people  into  a  living  condition  of  common  brotherhood. 

Frugality,  superior  intelligence,  and  industry,  would  soon,  however, 
create  differences.  The  law  respecting  the  poor  was  given  by  revelation  to 
the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith. 

Revelation. — And  thus,  with  the  sword,  and  by  bloodshed,  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  earth  shall  mourn;  and  with  famine,  and  plague,  and  earth- 
quakes, and  the  thunder  of  heaven,  and  the  fierce  and  vivid  lightning  also, 
shall  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  be  made  to  feel  the  wrath,  and  indigna- 
tion and  chastening  hand  of  an  Almighty  God,  until  the  consumption  de- 
creed, hath  made  a  full  end  of  all  nations"  (Doc.  and  Cov.  87:6;  1:11-15). 


XXXIV— Business  Life 

Credit  System,. — Is  there  no  end  to  credit?  One  hundred  and  twenty 
billion!  That  is  the  present  indebtedness  of  the  nations  at  war.  The 
actual  gold  reserves  which  back  up  these  obligations  are  insignificantly 
small.  Running  in  debt  is  a  simple  thing.  We  all  know  what  debt 
means.  Its  shifting  processes  make  and  unmake  men  by  hundreds  of 
thousands  annually.  Debts  weaken,  too  often,  the  moral  status  of  man. 
They  embitter  him,  convert  him  into  a  pessimist,  and  often  drive  him 
to  court  anarchy  openly  or  secretly;  more  often  secretly.  How  much 
anarchy  there  is  in  the  world  can  hardly  be  surmised.  It  is  only  when 
violence  manifests  itself  and  gains  the  upper  hand  that  its  great  re- 
cruits pour  in.  The  shifting  of  financial  advantages  from  one  country 
to  another  operates  to  depress  'individuals  as  it  does  nations. 

Money  is  today  the  most  powerful  agent  in  the  world.  Its  disinte- 
grating spirit  spells  all  sorts  of  ruin,  worse  in  this  age  than  any  other 
because  there  is  more  dependence  upon  it.  What  a  money  mart  Syria 
was  in  the  days  of  Croesus!  How  the  proud  Phoenicians  gathered  the 
treasures  of  the  world  in  their  ports  on  the  Mediterranean!  In  Spain 
money  talked  to  all  the  world.  Money  in  all  ages  spelled  ruin.  What 
will  it  spell  in  ours?  Conditions  are  different;  that  is  true,  but  the  mod- 
ern financial  woild  is  more  sensitive  to  its  disturbance  than  the  ancient 
or  medieval.  Money  which  is  so  much  coveted  is  dangerous  alike  to  the 
nations  that  get  it  as  well  as  to  those  that  lose  it,  for  the  one  that  has 


86  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

lends  to  the  one  that  needs,  and  money  scarcity  is  felt  everywhere.  We 
have  learned  already  how  a  disturbance  in  the  money  market  affects  every 
class  of  business,  how  depositors  rush  to  the  bank  and  draw  out  their  mil- 
lions. Great  money  disturbances  are  certain  to  come,  and  it  will  tax 
the  wisdom  of  the  world  more  than  it  ever  has  in  the  past.  We  may  look 
for  crises. 

Shifting  the  Money  Market. — The  money  centre  of  the  world  has  been 
shifted  from  London  to  New  York,  and  England  is  therefore  sure  to  feel 
the  pinch  of  the  loss  of  its  monetary  standing.  This  is  the  picture  drawn 
by  the  great  paper,  the  London  Statist: 

"The  main  cause,  of  course,  of  the  trouble  in  which  we  find 
ourselves  is  the  refusal  of  governments  of  all  parties  to  prepare, 
though  they  were  fully  and  clearly  warned  by  the  enemy  himself. 
But  we  must  add  that  the  government  was  to  some  extent  misled 
by  the  London  bankers,  who,  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  previously, 
had  refused,  in  spite  of  all  warnings  and  all  pressure  brought  to  bear 
upon  them,  to  increase  adequately  their  reserves.  The  main  cause, 
however,  of  the  predicament  in  which  we  now  find  ourselves,  is 
that  we,  the  public  of  all  classes  and  all  conditions,  have  allowed 
the  idle  rich  and  the  mere  talking  professional  classes  to  monopolize 
the  government  of  the  empire.  Consequently,  we  must  frankly  ad- 
mit that  a  good  deal  of  the  discredit  rests  upon  the  great  public 
itself.  Will  they  waken  up  at  last,  and  recognize  that  men  who 
cannot  dress  themselves  of  a  morning  without  the  help  of  ser- 
vants, cannot  be  expected  to  do  anything  that  entails  a  little  trou- 
ble, however  simple  it  may  be,  and  that  gentlemen  whose  business 
in  life  is  to  talk  and  to  interpret  an  uninterpretable  law,  are  not 
likely  to  be  good  guides  in  the  days  of  danger  and  distress." 

Dangers  of  Chaos. — It  may  be  that  we  have  very  few  men  in  Congress 
who  are  unable  to  dress  themselves  mornings,  but  we  have  a  good  ma- 
jority of  talking  professionals  whose  business  training  quite  unfits  them 
for  the  grave  responsibility  of  financial  legislation  beyond  getting  appro- 
priations. The  raids  on  our  national  treasury  are  often  scandalous.  The 
business  men  of  the  United  States  have  withheld  themselves  from  polit- 
ical life,  and  employed  their  talents  in  private  enterprise.  The  United 
States  will  require  its  most  competent  men  when  it  faces  the  payment 
of  twenty  billions  and  much  more.  Capital  is  a  most  capricious  thing  and 
holds  in  its  keeping  the  employment  of  millions  of  men  and  women  whose 
daily  bread  depends  upon  the  working  machinery  of  our  industrial  life. 
This  machinery  will  become  more  sensitive  as  the  big  future  financial 
problems  confront  us.  Any  displacement  or  break-up  would  lead  to  the 
most  disastrous  results.  But  if  we  are  to  become  the  financial  centre  of 
the  world  shall  we  not  have  plenty  of  money  for  mistakes  and  extrava- 
gance? The  trouble  is  that  we  are  likely  to  lose  our  hold  on  what  we  get. 
The  nations  of  Europe  will  enter  into  a  fierce  competition  for  the  recapture 
of  it.  Government  operation  must  be  on  a  scale  heretofore  unknown  to  us. 
If  we  deal  as  wastefully  with  billions  as  we  now  deal  with  millions,  and 
graft  is  not  replaced  by  more  conservative  and  honorable  methods,  the 
results  may  prove  most  disastrous. 

End  of  Great  Fortunes. — In  an  interview  with  William  Guggenheim, 
published  in  McClure's  for  October,  he  is  reported  as  saying: 

"I  believe  the  end  of  this  war  will  mark  the  end  of  huge  fortunes. 
After  Mr.  Rockefeller,  it  is  likely  the  world  will  never  again  see  an 
accumulation  of  a  thousand  million  dollars  in  the  hands  of  one  per- 
son. War  is  making  us  accustomed  to  profit  control.  More  and  more 
people  are  asking,  'Why  should  anybody  get  more  than  a  certain  rea- 
sonable profit  out  of  any  enterprise?'  As  a  matter  of  fact,  why 
should  they?" 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  87 

Of  the  incentive  to  work,  he  further  remarked: 

"All  men,  whether  poor  or  rich,  need  some  encouragement,  some 
stimulation  of  ambition  to  make  them  put  forth  their  best  efforts, 
but  remember,  it  is  not  to  accumulate  further  millions  indefinitely 
that  rich  men  work.  As  soon  as  a  man  has  fifty  or  sixty  thousand  a 
year  to  spend,  he  has  about  all  that  money  can  give  him.  What  he 
wants  after  that  is  power.  He  continues  to  work  for  the  joy  he  gets 
in  the  exercise  of  power.  In  the  future  our  able  rich  men  will  find 
joy  in  power  by  associating  themselves  with  the  government,  for  gov- 
ernment is  power." 

The  last  sentence  is  a  forecast  of  our  government  as  a  great  business 
agency  in  the  operation  of  railroads,  telegraph  lines,  steamships,  telephones, 
and  other  public  utilities.  How  will  it  work  out  on  the  question  of  capital 
and  labor?  The  government  will  derive  its  power  from  labor  and  it  will  be 
also  the  capitalist.  Such  a  condition  is  anomalous,  and  its  workings  no  man 
can  foresee,  except  the  endless  controversy  and  bitterness  that  will  be  sure 
to  arise  out  of  it.  It,  like  a  hundred  other  problems,  will  be  a  new  one, 
charged  heavily  for  good  or  evil. 

The  important  thing  to  remember  is  that  such  future  conditions,  to  bring 
peace,  must  be  based  upon  a  high  state  of  morality  and  religion.  As  things 
now  stand  in  the  world,  the  new  age  will  be  subject  to  explosive  violence  of 
the  most  destructive  kind.  Is  there  nothing  but  danger  in  the  world,  nothing 
but  violence  to  hope  for?  Look  about  you  and  see.  Is  it  not  an  age  of 
explosives,  an  age  of  destruction?  If  present  conditions  keep  on  long  we 
shall  witness  more  destruction  in  the  war  now  going  on  than  has  been  wit- 
nessed in  all  the  wars  from  the  beginning  of  time  down  to  the  year  1914. 
But  will  not  wealth  insure  us?  Wealth  is  not  a  preservation  of  any  kind. 
It  is  laden  with  danger.  The  greatest  wealth  of  all  time  has  demonstrated 
how  horribly  destructive  it  can  be,  destructive  in  both  life  and  property.  We 
say  it  is  the  "sinews  of  war."  It  is  likewise  the  death-rattle  of  war. 

Rivalry. — -What  will  be  the  position  of  the  United  States  financially  after 
the  war?  Read  further  from  the  London  Statist: 

"In  every  direction  competitors  are  growing  up.  But  there  are 
two  who  are  specially  dangerous.  First  our  kinsman  across  the  Atlan- 
tic. They  are  considerably  more  than  twice  as  numerous  as  we  are 
in  these  islands.  They  are  among  the  very  best  business  men  the 
world  holds  today.  And  they  are  in  possession  of  soil  which  is  capa- 
ble of  maintaining  five  times  the  population  it  has  at  present.  They 
have  therefore  illimitable  room  to  spread  and  to  multiply,  and  they 
have  resources  which,  with  the  exception  of  China,  no  other  country 
possesses.  Under  any  circumstances,  therefore,  they  would  distance 
us  in  the  long  run.  As  it  is,  three  short  years  of  war  have  suddenly 
deprived  us  of  our  financial  primacy,  and  threaten  to  land  us  in  a  posi- 
tion in  which  we  shall  be  dependent  upon  the  lending  powers  of 
others,  and  incapable  of  lending  ourselves." 

"The  second  really  formidable  competitor  is  Japan.  Her  people 
are  far  less  numerous  than  our  American  kinsmen,  and  her  soil  is  in 
no  sense  equal  to  theirs.  On  the  other  hand,  she  has  a  wide  territory 
now,  and  she  has  a  people  as  capable  as  perhaps  any  country  upon 
earth.  Her  trade  is  growing  at  a  rapid  rate,  her  credit  is  rising  sur- 
prisingly well;  and  above  all  and  as  a  proof  of  all,  she  has  been  able 
to  lend  to  Russia,  to  France,  and  to  ourselves,  while  she  has  supplied 
Russia  with  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  munitions  which  have  en- 
abled Russia  to  make  such  fight  as  she  has  made  up  to  the  present. 
There  is  no  scarcity,  then,  of  competent  communities  to  take  our 
place." 

Dangers  of  Money. — Money  is,  and  always  has  been,  the  firebrand  of 
war.  Two  things  are  necessary  for  a  conflagration:  one,  proximity;  the 


88  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

% 

other,  competition.  American  and  Japanese  possessions  are  interlaced. 
Both  nations  are  proud  and  avaricious.  Can  they  maintain  peace  between 
themselves?  We  have  witnessed  Japan's  sensitiveness  over  her  people  in 
our  Pacific  States,  and  we  have  felt  her  resentment  when  our  country  sent 
to  China  the  innocent  hope  that  the  Chinese  might  settle  peacefully  their 
difficulties.  Both  countries  will  be  rich  and  equipped  for  any  emergencies. 
The  latent  dangers  between  them  cannot  be  concealed.  Japan  has  estab- 
lished a  sort  of  Monroe  Doctrine  with  respect  to  China;  but  unlike  us, 
she  interfered  with  the  government  and  resources  of  China  in  a  way  we 
would  not  think  of  doing  in  South  America.  There  are  now  serious  dif- 
ficulties between  us,  difficulties  which  the  war  is  postponing.  Later 
they  must  be  adjusted.  Besides,  China  is  the  coming  country 
for  the  exploitation  of  trade.  Two  money  powers,  two  financial 
centers,  are  already  staring  each  other  in  the  face.  Neither  is  exhausted 
or  likely  to  be  exhausted  by  the  present  war.  The  heavens,  the  earth, 
and  the  sea  are  filled  with  explosives.  Whenever  explosives  have  been 
piled  up,  something  or  somebody  has  touched  them  off.  They  are  not 
very  comforting  to  contemplation  nor  to  personal  relation.  You  say  such 
pictures  are  very,  very  dark.  Very  well,  then,  you  draw  a  bright  one.  The 
trenches  are  not  all  in  France.  Capital  and  labor  are  entrenched,  the 
forces  of  evil  everywhere  are  entrenched.  It  is  a  world  of  antagonisms. 
The  money  markets  of  the  world  are  face  to  face  in  the  trenches.  Mam- 
mon aspires  to  unrighteous  dominion.  Men  take  desperate  chances  to  get 
money,  and  so  do  the  nations.  There  is  a  national  life  moved  by  the  same 
motives  that  actuate  individuals. 

We  shall  be  proud  to  see  the  money  center  of  the  world  transferred 
to  our  own  great  financial  metropolis.  Ninety  per  cent  of  all  the  trouble 
in  the  world  has  its  root  in  money.  It  creates,  wherever  it  is  abundant, 
social,  moral,  and  business  trouble.  And  it  is  the  one  thing  almost  uni- 
versally craved,  notwithstanding  its  evil  associates.  Is  there  no  hope? 
Yes,  there  is  one  hope,  and  only  one,  and  that  is  that  some  day  God  will 
bring  light  to  this  old  earth  as  he  did  to  its  creation. 

Revelation. — "And  all  things  shall  be  in  commotion;  and  surely  men's 
hearts  shall  fail  them;  for  fear  shall  come  upon  all  people"  (Doc.  and  Cov. 
88:91;  Read  also  Sees.  70  and  72,  Doc.  and  Cov.) 


XXXV— The  Negro  Question 

Its  Origin. — The  Civil  War  did  not  end  the  negro  question.  The  free- 
ing of  that  race  from  the  bonds  of  servitude  brought  about  one  of  the  most 
destructive  and  hate-engendering  wars  that  the  world  has  ever  known,  and 
gave  rise  to  what  is  known  in  polities  as  the  solid  South.  During  all  of 
the  period  of  reconstruction  the  animostities  between  members  of  Congress 
from  the  north  and  south  were  often  wholly  beyond  control,  and  disputa- 
tions on  the  floors  of  the  Senate  and  House  sometimes  led  to  physical  en- 
counters. Economic  conditions  in  the  early  history  of  the  United  States 
were  responsible  for  the  transportation  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  black 
men  from  their  home  in  Africa  to  the  land  of  freedom  and  to  conditions 
wholly  unlike  those  to  which  the  black  race  was  inured.  It  was  no  fault 
of  that  unfortunate  people  that  they  came  in  contact  with  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race.  They  were  creatures  of  the  slave  trade  carried  on  generally  by 
the  Arabs  in  Africa  and  were  the  victims  of  a  slavery  that  is  often  por- 
trayed as  in  most  instances  heart-rending. 

Liberty  is  a  very  precious  boon.  The  lowest  of  races  prize  it.  The 
freedom  of  speech,  the  right  to  move  about  as  one  sees  fit,  is  one  of  the 
boons  of  government  for  which  the  world  has  been  struggling  for  many 
centuries. 

The  Prophet  Joseph  foresaw  the  war  which  the  negro  question  would 
bring  about,  and  his  prophetic  utterances  are  historically  familiar  to  all 
the  Saints.  He  would  have  solved  the  question  by  the  purchase  of  the 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  89 

negro's  freedom.  Such,  however,  was  not  permitted  to  be  (See  Era,  Dec., 
1917,  p.  170).  The  question  of  whether  or  not  the  negro  should  be  free 
was  a  burning  question  between  two  important  sections  of  our  country — the 
North  and  the  South.  It  was  not  simply  a  question  of  compensation.  It 
was  a  question  of  arguments,  of  long  standing  disputations,  and  of  hatreds 
that  had  grown  out  of  political  conditions  in  view  of  the  division  between 
the  North  and  the  South.  It  was  one  of  those  forces  that  had  passed  human 
adjustment  by  any  visible  means,  and  it  led  to  a  most  fearful  war,  whose 
consequences  in  our  national  hatred  have  been  felt  for  more  than  a  gen- 
eration. 

Effects  of  Emancipation. — One  extreme  often  follows  another.  The 
negroes  were  lifted  out  of  a  condition  of  servitude  and  placed  not  only  into 
a  new  world  of  social  and  financial  freedom,  but  were  given  all  the 
political  rights  which  belonged  to  the  white  race.  They  were  grossly  in- 
competent, they  were  unsuited  for  self-government,  and  above  all,  they  had 
proven  no  capacity  for  rule  in  a  government  such  as  ours  was.  That  was 
no  fault  of  theirs,  unless  it  may  be  said  that  it  was  a  race  incapacity. 
There  has  been  a  world  of  discussion  as  to  whether  it  was  a  wise  thing, 
politically  or  economically  or  socially  to  do.  The  question  has  been 
thrashed  out  for  upwards  of  fifty  years  on  the  floors  of  Congress.  How- 
ever, it  is  an  acknowledged  fact,  at  times  it  brought  the  people  of  the 
North  and  the  South  to  the  verge  of  armed  forces.  Unhappily,  the  ques- 
tion is  not  solved  in  our  own  day  and  there  are  prospects  of  future  trou- 
bles which  give  anxiety  to  the  best,  most  thoughtful  minds  of  our  age. 
The  question  will  not  down.  It  confronts  us  in  numerous  ways,  and  all 
the  time  there  is  a  world  of  hatred  growing  out  of  the  differences  between 
the  black  and  the  white  races.  Hatreds  in  time  bear  fruitage.  They  have 
their  evil  consequences  to  future  generations.  They  are  a  part  of  our  in- 
heritance, and  thus  we  go  on  accumulating,  year  after  year,  the  most  dan- 
gerous explosives  to  our  social,  economic,  and  governmental  life.  Even 
now  the  last  echoes  of  an  awful  tragedy  between  the  negroes  and  the 
whites  at  St.  Louis  has  not  died  away.  Our  government  is,  at  this  writing, 
carrying  on  the  trial  of  colored  soldiers  who  in  Texas  made  a  raid  upon 
one  of  the  cities  and  killed  a  number  of  inhabitants.  Wherever  the  ne- 
groes find  themselves  at  any  advantage  whatever  they  are  quick  to  resent 
the  wrongs  which  they  believe,  and  which  they  have  been  taught  to  be- 
lieve, have  been  piled  upon  them  for  generations.  We  have  frequent  ac- 
counts of  the  burning  of  negroes  at  the  stake.  Many  of  that  unfortunate 
race  have  been  led  in  ignorance  to  commit  outrages  upon  whites — outrages 
that  are  not  entirely  unknown  to  the  white  race — but  there  is  a  psycholog- 
ical barrier  between  the  two.  What  is  done  by  the  one  is  unspeakably  more 
horrible  than  that  committed  by  the  other,  and  the  ethnological  barriers  be- 
tween the  two  have  no  prospect  of  breaking  down. 

Intermarriage. — All  practices  of  intermarriage  have  brought  the  off- 
spring of  the  two  races  completely  on  the  side  of  the  colored  man,  and 
even  when  this  intermarriage  is  carried  on  for  a  number  of  generations, 
eliminating  almost  entirely  the  color  of  the  skin,  the  so-called  "taint  of  the 
blood"  is  there.  The  gulf  between  them  is  impassable. 

The  Irrepressible  Conflict. — For  a  long  time  the  people  of  the  North, 
out  of  the  zeal  of  the  Civil  War,  were  the  advocates  of  negro  rights.  They 
resented  through  the  press  what  they  considered  the  unjust  treatment  of 
the  black  man  and  his  failure  to  receive  the  political  recognition  that  was 
rightfully  due  him.  The  negro  question  was  the  absorbing  question  of 
the  South.  More  and  more  it  is  invading  the  North.  Into  all  the  large 
cities  large  numbers  have  migrated,  only  to  be  compelled  to  occupy  cer- 
tain districts  isolated  for  their  habitation.  In  the  North  it  is  also  becom- 
ing an  industrial  question.  The  black  man  is  not  invited  into  the  great 
labor  unions;  as  a  rule  he  is  excluded  from  a  large  number  of  employ- 
ments; he  is  often  discriminated  against  in  the  schools.  The  ideals,  there- 
fore, which  certain  northern  people  erected  with  respect  to  their  nnfortn- 


90  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

nate  colored  brethren  of  the  south,  have  not  been  successfully  carried  out. 
They  are  not  today,  so  far  as  human  interest  can  aid,  capable  of  any  sat- 
isfactory realization. 

The  Economic  Phase. — The  negro  question  is  therefore  becoming 
more  and  more  an  economic  one,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  the  north  will  be 
any  better  able  to  solve  the  problem  than  the  people  of  the  south  have 
been.  In  such  antagonisms  there  is  always  more  or  less  injustice.  Views 
necessarily  become  extreme,  and  extreme  convictions  lead  to  unjust  results 
and  violent  antagonisms.  These  antagonisms  are  growing.  The  problem 
looms  up  on  all  sides.  Violence  is  done  to  the  black  man,  sometimes  by 
the  black  man  to  the  white  man.  Growing  hatreds  can  mean  nothing  less 
than  growing  violence.  Violence  begets  war,  and  there  are  not  a  few 
who  sincerely  believe  that  as  soon  as  the  negro  feels  himself  competent 
to  strike,  he  will  strike  in  the  most  dangerous  manner.  We  are  bring- 
ing him  into  our  armies.  We  are  drilling  him  to  fight.  We  call  upon  him 
to  offer  his  life  in  any  war  to  which  his  country  may  be  a  party.  He 
fought,  and  fought  valiantly,  in  the  war  against  Spain,  and  will  be  found 
by  the  thousands  in  the  ranks  of  the  American  army  now  in  or  moving  to 
France. 

The  question  is  full  of  pathos.  What  shall  be  done?  What  can  be 
done?  In  the  days  of  Noah,  the  daughters  of  man  were  fair  to  look  upon 
and  the  children  of  God  married  them.  This  led  to  the  flood.  A  mixture 
of  races  at  that  time,  as  we  understand  from  our  religious  doctrines,  be- 
tween the  dark  and  the  white  races,  led  to  the  destruction  of  the  human 
race.  We  do  not  believe  in  the  mixture  of  these  two  races.  All  experi- 
ence forbids  it.  Our  religious  teachings  give  us  fundamental  reasons  for 
the  differences  which  should  be  maintained. 

The  movement  of  the  negro  is  now  growing  rapidly  from  the  farms 
which  he  has  cultivated  to  the  large  cities  in  which  he  is  becoming  an 
important  factor.  In  the  North  he  enjoys  his  political  franchise.  He  may 
exercise  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  compel  at  least  some  measure  of  political 
respect;  but  that  franchise  freely  exercised  in  the  North,  carries  with  it 
dangers  that  may  lead  to  violence  even  among  those  who  have  been  the 
most  professed  friends  of  the  negro.  In  the  South  the  views  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  this  race  are  irreconcilable. 

Conflicting  Views. — I  quote  here  from  an  address  of  Senator  Jas. 
K.  Vardaman,  from  Mississippi: 

"But  the  door  of  hope  might  have  remained  closed  so  far  as  the 
progress  of  the  negro  was  to  make  for  himself  was  concerned.  He  has 
never  created  for  himself  any  civilization.  He  has  never  risen  above 
the  government  of  a  club.  He  has  never  written  a  language.  His 
achievements  in  architecture  are  limited  to  the  thatched-roofed  hut 
or  a  hole  in  the  ground.  No  monuments  have  been  builded  by  him 
to  body  forth  and  perpetuate  in  the  memory  of  posterity  the  virtues 
of  his  ancestors. 

"For  countless  ages  he  has  looked  upon  the  rolling  sea  and  never 
dreamed  of  a  sail.  In  truth,  he  has  never  progressed,  save  and  except 
when  under  the  influence  and  absolute  control  of  a  superior  race.  His 
opportunities  have  been  great.  The  negro  helped  to  build  the  tem- 
ples of  Rameses,  he  polished  the  columns  of  Karnak,  he  toiled  at  the 
hundred-gated  Thebes,  he  was  touched  by  the  tides  of  civilization  that 
swept  across  the  Eastern  Hemisphere  in  the  forenoon  of  the  ages,  and 
yet  it  made  no  more  impression  upon  him  as  a  race  than  a  drop  of  wa- 
ter on  the  oily  back  of  a  duck.  He  is  living  in  Africa  today,  in  the 
land  where  he  sprang,  indigenous,  in  substantially  the  same  condi- 
tion, occupying  the  same  rude  hut,  governed  by  the  same  club,  wor- 
shiping the  same  fetish  that  he  did  when  the  Pharaohs  ruled  in  Egypt. 
He  has  never  had  any  civilization  except  that  which  has  been  incul- 
cated by  a  superior  race.  And  it  is  a  lamentable  fact  that  his  civiliza- 
tion lagts  only  so  long  as  he  is  in  the  hands  of  the  white  man  who  in- 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  91 

culcates  it.  When  left  to  himself. he  has  universally  gone  back  to 
the  barbarism  of  the  jungle. 

"Let  us  consider  his  condition  in  Haiti.  It  will  throw  a  flood  of 
light  upon  our  own  American  problem.  The  negro  acquired  control 
of  this  island  more  than  100  years  ago.  Thomas  Jefferson  said:  This 
will  test  the  negro's  capacity  for  self-government.' 

"With  his  usual  prescience  and  foresight,  Jefferson  predicted 
failure.  But  he  said :  'Let  him  try  it.  We  will  help  him.' 

"Haiti  was  at  that  time  the  gem  of  the  Antilles.  The  most  mag- 
nificent cane  fields,  coffee  plantations,  and  fruit  groves  graced  the 
landscape  of  that  delightful  little  island.  Now  shift  the  scene.  Look 
at  Haiti  today,  after  100  years  of  negro  rule.  After  100  years  of  as- 
sistance by  the  white  man — assistance  with  money,  with  example,  pre- 
cept, and  all  of  those  superior  virtues  which  characterized  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  white  race,  what  do  we  find  there  today?  Sir  Spencer  St. 
John,  who  represented  the  English  government  at  Port  au  Prince  for 
twenty  years,  wrote  a  book  entitled,  Haiti,  or  Black  Republic.  When 
this  English  officer  first  visited  Haiti  he  looked  with  compassion  upon 
the  black  man.  He  thought  he  had  been  denied  an  equal  chance 
in  the  race  of  life.  He  thought  he  had  been  the  victim  of  slavery — 
that  the  elements  of  manhood  had  been  stifled  by  such  oppression  as 
some  of  the  distinguished  senators  on  this  floor  in  this  debate  have 
called  attention  to  as  having  been  practiced  in  the  Southern  States 
of  America.  Yes;  he  thought  'the  negro  was  a  sunburned  Yankee, 
who  had  not  been  given  a  square  deal.' 

"Sir  Spencer  St.  John  remained  as  the  representative  of  his  gov- 
ernment at  the  court  of  the  black  republic  for  twenty  years.  He  made 
a  close  study  of  the  question.  He  informed  himself  as  to  the  racial 
peculiarities  of  the  negro,  and  his  testimony  to  the  world  is  that  the 
negro  is  incapable  of  self-government.  He  is  incapable  of  sustaining 
a  civilization  all  his  own.  Further,  he  says: 

"'After  an  experience  of  100  years,  Haiti  has  proved  a  failure. 
There  is  no  semblance  of  civil  government  there,  except  in  the  sea- 
ports, which  are  dominated  by  whites  and  mulattoes.' " 

On  the  other  hand,  W.  E.  B.  DuBois,  an  eminent  leader  of  the  colored 
race,  speaking  of  the  results  of  the  prejudice  which  held  down  the  people 
of  his  race,  writes  as  follows: 

/ 

"No  matter  how  well  trained  a  negro  may  be,  or  how  fitted  for 
work  of  any  kind,  he  cannot  in  the  ordinary  course  of  competition 
hope  to  be  much  more  than  a  menial  servant. 

"He  cannot  get  clerical  or  supervisory  work  to  do  save  in  excep- 
tional cases. 

"He  cannot  teach  save  in  a  few  of  the  remaining  negro  schools. 

"He  cannot  become  a  mechanic  except  for  small  transient  jobs, 
and  cannot  join  a  trades  union. 

"A  negro  woman  has  but  three  careers  open  to  her  in  this  city: 
domestic  service,  sewing,  or  married  life. 

"As  to  keeping  work: 

"The  negro  suffers  in  competition  more  severely  than  white  men. 

"Change  in  fashion  is  causing  him  to  be  replaced  by  whites  in 
the  better  paid  positions  of  domestic  service. 

"Whim  and  accident  will  cause  him  to  lose  a  hard-earned  place 
more  quickly  than  the  same  things  would  affect  a  white  man. 

"Being  few  in  number  compared  with  the  whites  the  crime  or  care- 
lessness of  a  few  of  his  race  is  easily  imputed  to  all,  and  the  reputa- 
tion of  the  good,  industrious,  and  reliable  suffer  thereby. 

"Because  negro  workmen  may  not  often  work  side  by  side  with 
white  workmen,  the  individual  black  workman  is  rated  not  by  his  own 
efficiency,  but  by  the  efficiency  of  a  whole  group  of  black  fellow 
workmen  which  may  often  be  low. 


92  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

"Because  of  these  difficulties,  which  virtually  increase  competition 
in  his  case,  he  is  forced  to  take  lower  wages  for  the  same  work  than 
white  workmen. 

"Men  are  used  to  seeing  negroes  in  inferior  positions;  when, 
therefore,  by  any  chance  a  negro  gets  in  a  better  position,  most  men 
immediately  conclude  that  he  is  not  fitted  for  it,  even  before  he  has 
a  chance  to  show  his  fitness." 

"If,  therefore,  he  set  up  a  store,  men  will  not  patronize  him. 
"As  to  his  expenditure : 

'The  comparative  smallness  of  the  patronage  of  the  negro,  and  the 

dislike  of  other  customers,  make  it  usual  to  increase  the  charges  or 

difficulties  in  certain  directions  in  which  a  negro  must  spend  money. 

"He  must  pay  more  house  rent  for  worse  houses  than  most  white 

people  pay. 

"He  is  sometimes  liable  to  insult  or  reluctant  service  in  some  res- 
taurants, hotels,  and  stores,  at  public  resorts,  theaters,  and  places  of 
recreation,  and  at  nearly  all  barber  shops. 
"As  to  his  children: 

"The  negro  finds  it  extremely  difficult  to  rear  children  in  such 
an  atmosphere  and  not  have  them  either  cringing  or  impudent:  if  he 
impresses  upon  them  patience  with  their  lot,  they  may  grow  up  satis- 
fied with  their  condition;  if  he  inspires  them  with  ambition  to  rise, 
they  may  grow  up  to  despise  their  own  people,  hate  the  whites,  and 
become  embittered  with  the  world. 

"His  children  are  discriminated  against,  often  in  public  schools. 
"They  are  advised  when  seeking  employment  to  become  waiters 
and  maids. 

"They  are  liable  to  species  of  insult  and  temptation  peculiarly 
trying  to  children. 

"As  to  social  intercourse: 

"In  all  the  walks  of  life  the  negro  is  liable  to  meet  some  ob- 
jection to  his  presence  or  some  discourteous  treatment;  and  the  ties 
of  friendship  or  memory  seldom  are  strong  enough  to  hold  across  the 
color  line. 

"If  an  invitation  is  issued  to  the  public  for  any  occasion,  the 
negro  can  never  know  whether  he  would  be  welcomed  or  not;  if  he 
goes  he  is  liable  to  have  his  feelings  hurt  and  get  into  unpleasant 
altercation;  if  he  stays  away  he  is  blamed  for  indifference. 

"If  he  meet  a  lifelong  white  friend  on  the  street,  he  is  in  a  dilem- 
ma; if  he  does  not  greet  the  friend  he  is  put  down  as  boorish  and 
impolite;  if  he  does  greet  the  friend  he  is  liable  to  be  flatly  snubbed. 
"If  by  chance  he  is  introduced  to  a  white  woman  or  man,  he  ex- 
pects to  be  ignored  on  the  next  meeting,  and  usually  is. 

"White  friends  may  call  on  him,  but  he  is  scarcely  expected  to 
call  on  them,  save  for  strictly  business  matters. 

"If  he  gain  the  affections  of  a  white  woman  and  marry  her,  he 
may  invariably  expect  that  slurs  will  be  thrown  on  her  reputation  and 
on  his,  and  that  both  his  and  her  race  will  shun  their  company. 

"When  he  dies  he  cannot  be  buried  beside  white  corpses.  *  * 
"Any  one  of  these  things  happening  now  and  then  would  not  be 
remarkable  or  call  for  especial  comment;  but  when  one  group  of 
people  suffer  all  these  little  differences  of  treatment  and  discrimina- 
tions and  insults  continually,  the  result  is  either  discouragement,  or 
bitterness,  or  oversensitiveness,  or  recklessness.  And  a  people  feeling 
thus  cannot  do  their  best." 

The  present  war  will  make  a  heavier  demand  for  the  kind  of  labor  the 
colored  man  is  fitted  to  do.  Thousands  will  migrate  from  the  south  and  take 
employment  surrendered  by  the  call  to  arms.  The  whites  will  return,  and 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  they  will  endeavor  to  crowd  the  negro  back. 
Will  they  be  able  to  do  it?  The  negro  question  is  full  of  ugly  possibilities. 

Negro  Excluded  from  Exercise  of  Government  in  Churches. — The  negro 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  93 

race  in  the  Church  are  excluded  from  its  government  through  the  priest- 
hood. "Now  this  king  [Pharaoh]  of  Egypt  was  a  descendant  from  the  loins 
of  Ham,  and  was  a  partaker  of  the  blood  of  the  Canaanites  by  birth. 

"From  this  descendant  sprang  all  the  Egyptians,  and  thus  the  blood  of 
the  Canaanites  was  preserved  in  the  land.  Pharaoh  being  a  righteous  man, 
established  his  kingdom  and  judged  his  people  wisely  and  justly  all  his 
days,  seeking  earnestly  to  imitate  that  order  established  by  the  fathers  in 
the  first  generations,  in  the  days  of  the  first  patriarchal  reign,  even  in  the 
reign  of  Adam,  and  also  of  Noah  his  father,  who  blessed  him  with  the  bless- 
ings of  the  earth,  and  with  the  blessings  of  wisdom,  but  cursed  him  as  per- 
taining to 'the  priesthood"  (Book  of  Abraham  1:21,22,26). 


XXXVI— Manhood 

Immorality.-— There  is  today  no  more  crying  evil  than  the  violation  of 
physical  manhood.  For  years  the  women  of  the  United  States  have  been 
waging  war  against  the  double  standard,  a  standard  that  permits  certain 
vices  in  men  that  are  not  to  be  tolerated  in  women.  The  present  custom 
among  men  to  postpone  marriage  till  late  in  life  is  fraught  with  dangers 
and  evil  practices.  As  soon  as  the  custom  manifested  itself  there  was  a 
growing  suspicion  that  underneath  there  lurked  a  life  of  immorality.  The 
matter  was  not  long  left  to  suspicion.  Certain  infectious  diseases  were 
found  to  be  multiplying  at  a  rapid  rate.  They  were  sapping  the  manhood 
of  the  country  and  ruining  the  lives  of  countless  women  and  children.  The 
secrecy  of  the  evil  was  such  that  men  were  free  from  public  condemna- 
tion, and  thus  its  spread  became  of  such  common  disaster  that  a  protest 
was  raised.  The  absence  of  children  in  the  home  was  laid  at  the  door  of 
the  wife,  and  she  was  not  infrequently  accused  of  wilful  barrenness,  both 
from  the  rostrum  and  in  public  print.  This  permitted  the  spread  of  a  sin- 
ful life  by  shifting  wrongfully  the  burden  of  race  suicide  upon  the  woman. 
That  in  time  became  unthinkable,  as  the  nature  of  most  women  craves 
motherhood.  Gradually  it  was  discovered  that  this  rancorous  disease  of 
manhood  was  making  serious  inroads  into  social  life.  Its  effects  became  too 
plainly  visible  to  ignore.  The  women  denied  indignantly  that  the  absence 
of  children  in  the  home  was  due  to  them.  Responsibility  for  it  was  due 
generally  to  the  fact  that  manhood  had  lost  its  most  vital  function,  and  where 
it  survived  it  was  frequently  attended  by  a  variety  of  diseases,  both  in  women 
and  in  their  children.  The  inheritance  of  sexual  diseases  became  too  plain 
and  widespread  to  ignore.  It 'was  a  most  vital  question  to  the  welfare  of 
society  and  the  perpetuity  of  the  race.  It  became  so  pronounced  that  a 
campaign  headed  by  thoughtful  men  and  women  was  inaugurated.  It  was  a 
peril,  they  de>  lared,  to  our  national  life.  Diseases  of  'various  kinds  were 
directly  traced  to  the  violation  of  the  law  of  chastity. 

There  are  among  others,  three  fundamental  rights  of  all  human  beings: 
the  right  to  be  well  born,  to  produce  their  kind,  and  to  die  in  the  fulfilment 
of  life's  mission.  To  die  on  the  battlefield  is  a  patriotic  duty;  often  death 
is  the  result  of  national  transgressions.  A  man  may  well  fulfil  life's  mission 
by  the  sacrifice  of  his  life  to  maintain  the  liberty  of  his  country  and  pos- 
terity. We  may  well  conclude  that  death  under  such  circumstances  is  not 
a  loss,  not  a  calamity  to  him  who  suffers  it.  But  death  by  diseases  that  are 
traceable  to  sin  is  no  part  of  the  mission  of  man.  It  is  a  visitation  often 
of  the  sins  of  the  parents  upon  the  children  to  the  third  and  fourth  gen- 
eration. To  the  guilty  one  there  is  attached  a  penalty  that  inflicts  pain 
and  brings  premature  death.  The  most  serious  results  come  from  the  visita- 
tion of  a  loathsome  disease  upon  those  who  have  a  right  to  be  well  born. 
It  is  not  infrequently  stated  that  the  curtailment  of  birth  is  frequently  due 
to  those  who  know  what  the  dangers  of  bearing  children  would  mean  to 
their  offspring.  Is  that  excusable?  There  is  not  much  difference  between 
the  wrong  and  the  remedy.  By  preventing  birth  the  world  is  inviting  death. 
It  is  executing  its  own  judgment.  But  there  seems  to  be  no  hesitation  in 
cutting  short  the  human  race.  The  same  practices  are  still  going  on.  The 


94  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

stoppage  of  life  and  the  destruction  of  life  go  hand  in  hand.  Indeed,  the 
former  is  justified  by  the  existence  of  the  latter.  "No  more  fodder  for 
cannon"  is  the  persistent  cry. 

Revelations  of  War. — What,  then,  is  the  condition  of  the  soldiers  at 
war?  Statements  come  that  the  ravages  of  venerial  disease  at  the  front  are 
worse  than  the  ravages  of  war.  Some  have  gone  so  far  as  to  declare  that 
there  would  be  no  more  French  race — that  herafter  it  would  be  mongrel. 
The  condition  of  our  soldiers  along  the  Mexican  frontier  has  been  likewise 
dwelt  upon  by  the  profoundest  regrets.  I  prefer  to  quote  from  Miss  Jean- 
ette  Rankin,  our  congresswoman  from  Montana,  who  in  the  Chicago  Sunday- 
Herald  of  September  15,  1917,  writes: 

"Although  deep  interest  has  been  shown  in  the  problem  of  keep- 
ing the  soldiers  in  the  new  military  cantonments  free  from  the  evils 
of  vice  which  so  deplorably  menaced  the  troops  on  the  Mexican  bor- 
der last  year,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  majority  of  the  protests  and 
petitions  for  clean  camps  which  have  been  expressed  by  women 
throughout  the  country  since  war  was  declared  have  been  based  purely 
on  grounds  of  personal  morality  and  health.  The  fact  that  young  men 
might  be  exposed  to  conditions  that  are  physically  and  morally  degen- 
erating presented  a  problem  of  personal  jeopardy  to  the  young  men 
involved. 

"These  protests  are  meritorious  in  a  high  degree.  But  there  is  an- 
other aspect  of  the  problem,  no  more  practical  in  its  isgnificance,  but 
of  more  impersonal  and  more  timely  concern  at  this  time  than  the 
purely  moral  aspect  of  the  problem.  I  refer  to  vice  and  its  attend- 
ant evils  (moral  and  physical  incapacity  of  victims)  upon  the  fighting 
strength  of  the  army. 

"It  was  said  in  the  early  spring  that  750,000  soldiers  in  the  allies' 
armies  have  been  incapacitated  by  a  loathsome  disease.  Later  reports 
have  put  the  number  of  inscapacitated  at  900,000.  It  is  said  that 
even  the  earth  in  the  trenches  is  now  impregnated  with  the  dread 
germ,  and  its  ravages  are  continuing  to  affect  significantly  the  strength 
of  the  army." 

The  statement  above  given  is  in  harmony  with  those  coming  from  other 
sources.  Practically  an  army  of  a  million  men  incapacitated!  What  of 
those  in  the  incipient  and  milder  stages?  War  begets  just  such  conditions. 
The  writer  has  heard  soldiers  of  the  Franco-Prussian  war  of  1870  say  that 
immorality  which  war  permits  was  a  great  incentive  of  many  soldiers  to 
fight.  They  said  that  tacit  understanding  with  officers  gave  encouragement 
to  immoral  excesses.  Some  said  that  in  the  army  they  were  almost  uni- 
versal. The  suffering  of  the  people  of  Belgium  and  northeastern  France  can 
never  be  known  in  this  life  and  in  the  hereafter  only  by  an  offended  God. 
The  writer  is  pleading  against  the  incapacity  of  the  soldiers  to  fight.  The 
startling  thing  about  it  will  be  their  incapacity  to  live.  As  fathers  they 
will  be  worse  than  a  negligible  quantity.  To  the  millions  killed  must  be 
added  the  millions  unfit  for  marriage.  To  the  Latter-day  Saints  the  moral 
phase  of  the  service  in  army  life  is  vastly  more  appalling  than  the  belligerent 
phase  of  it. 

The  immoral  conditions  of  army  life  in  actual  war  is  the  revelation  of 
both  conviction  and  practice  in  private  life;  it  is  also  the  revelation  of  a 
sinful  condition  that  permeates  society.  It  yields  less  to  moderation  perhaps 
than  other  sins.  The  world  knows  that  there  are  moderate  drinkers;  but 
sexual  sin  is  an  abandonment  that  is  rarely  curtailed.  In  it,  life  is  at  stake, 
then  society,  then  the  home,  and  lastly  posterity.  Such  sins  make  men  and 
women  excessive,  and  in  married  life  the  laws  of  virtue  are  often  outraged. 

Agitation. — One  remarkable  thing  about  it  is  the  freedom  with  which 
the  subject  is  discussed  by  all  classes.  Modesty  is  not  allowed  to  suppress 
a  fact  so  dangerous  to  all  humanity.  Another  thing  is  very  remarkable  in 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE  95 

that  the  discussion  is  more  pronounced  among  women  whose  antecedent 
training  was  shrouded  in  reserve  and  modesty.  They  have  become  very 
practical  on  the  subject.  They  have  learned  the  danger  that  lurks  in  mar- 
ried life,  which  they  are  more  and  more  distrusting.  Men  approach  the  sub- 
ject less  frequently.  Other  evils  they  discuss  with  remarkable  ability  and 
frankness,  the  most  destructive  they  are  silent  about.  Why?  Why  should 
men  not  speak  up?  Are  they  estopped  from  doing  so?  If  such  conditions  ex- 
ist as  are  depicted  by  Miss  Rankin,  there  is  no  other  danger  to  our  liberties 
and  lives  so  menacing.  It  overtowers  everything  else.  It  is  more  destructive 
than  battle.  Why  should  we  be  silent  about  it?  Can  we  be  patriotic  to 
our  country  and  at  the  same  time  unpatriotic  to  God?  Let  it  be  said  to  the 
credit  of  our  government  that  it  has  placed  greater  safeguards  around  the 
soldier  camps  than  has  ever  before  been  known  under  similar  circumstances. 

Judgments. — Statistical  reports  show  that  men  between  the  ages  of 
45  and  50  are  increasing  the  death  rate  of  that  class.  Diminished  powers 
of  resistance  are  inviting  tuberculosis  to  an  alarming  extent.  Army  exam- 
inations prove  a  rapid  decline  in  manhood.  It  is  the  burning  issue  of  the 
age,  We  have  put  it  off,  treated  it  as  an  incident  to  social  life.  Now  we 
are  forced  to  meet  it  face  to  face.  It  is  an  appropriate  time  to  examine 
ourselves  and  take  stock  of  our  physical  and  moral  manhood.  We  have 
been  at  no  end  of  effort  and  expense  to  achieve  mental  accomplishments.  To 
them  we  have  looked  for  our  salvation  from  the  corruption  of  the  age. 
They  have  not  worked  out  satisfactorily.  Is  this  the  time  to  discuss  the 
evils  of  the  age?  Should  we  not  wait  till  the  business  at  hand  is  finished? 
Will  not  the  war  be  hindered  by  warnings  against  its  accompanying  evils? 
Is  judgment  in  order  before  the  cause  of  the  justice  of  war  has  been  heard? 
Nations  have  violated  the  political  and  economic  rights  of  their  neighbors. 
Should  we  not  wait  till  our  foreign  work  is  accomplished  before  taking 
over  domestic  sorrows?  President  Smith  sounded  a  warning  note  to  our 
young  men.  The  great  question  with  him  was  not  so  much  the  manner  of 
death,  as  our  preparation  to  meet  it,  to  meet  the  judgment  which  follows.* 
I  copy  further  from  an  editorial  of  The  Independent,  Sept.  22,  1917: 

"War  a  Judgment  Day" 

"  'He  is  searching  out  the  hearts  of  men  before  his  judgment  seat.' 
So  runs  the  noblest  battle  hymn  of  all  the  nations.  Every  great  war 
has  been  a  judgment  day,  and  this  war  is  the  great  judgment  day  of 
human  history:  nations  and  institutions;  programs  and  efficiencies; 
men  and  their  deeds,  are  being  weighed  in  the  scales  of  fate,  and 
many  are  found  wanting. 

"The  fool  has  been  judged.  The  man  who  can't  tell  a  red 
light  from  a  white  one  is  as  dangerous  as  any  other  train  wrecker, 
and  will  henceforth  be  so  regarded.  The  coward  and  the  slacker 
have  been  judged.  They  expected  to  sneak  through  life  as  respec- 
table citizens.  The  war  caught  them.  In  all  their  business  they  stand 
exposed.  William  II  has  been  judged.  The  German  Empire  has 
been  judged." 

All  political  judgment  is  judgment  of  others.  What  about  God's  judg- 
ments? They  are  not  judgments  of  fate.  They  are  judgments  that  overtake 
sin.  Let  us  think  of  ourselves  and  insist  that  we  shall  be  safe  when  his 
judgments  befall  us.  We  have  a  foe  that  stalks  high  on  the  horizon.  He  is 
our  announced  enemy.  His  armor  glitters.  We  are  not  mistaken  about  him, 
but  he  is  not  our  only  foe.  We  have  secret  ones,  ones  which  we  do  not 
confess.  We  wrong  ourselves  grossly.  From  what  evils  do  we  suffer  most: 
those  which  come  to  us,  or  those  which  we  bring  upon  ourselves?  When  the 


I 


*Read  his  "Message  to  the  Soldier  Boys  of  'Mormondom',"  Improvement 
Era,  Vol.  20,  July,  1917,  pp.  821-9. 


96  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  AGE 

manhood  of  a  nation  is  at  stake,  is  its  redemption  not  the  greater  problem 
that  confronts  it?  The  law  of  chastity  is  as  imperative  upon  man  as  upon 
woman.  If  men  do  not  abide  the  moral  law  what  shall  become  of  woman- 
hood when  both  join  hands  in  the  industrial  life  of  the  world? 

Revelation. — "These  are  they  who  are  liars,  and  sorcerers,  and  adulter- 
ers, and  whoremongers,  and  whosoever  loves  and  makes  a  lie. 

"These  are  they  who  suffer  the  wrath  of  God  on  the  earth. 

"These  are  they  who  suffer  the  vengeance  of  eternal  fire"  (Doc.  and 
Cov.  76:103-105). 


